Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and the representatives of the Mid-West Hospital Campaign. A day like today really shows the value of this committee where it gives a voice to people who have been campaigning tirelessly to highlight the horrendous circumstances in which we find ourselves in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary. I have a long history with this issue. I represented workers in Nenagh in 2009 and I remember standing and sharing a platform on a truck in the square in Nenagh with people who were about to come into power a couple of years after. I remember everything they promised with regard to the reconfiguration and what they would do to ensure our hospitals were protected. They got into power and did exactly the opposite. We have had well over a decade of failure.

I will touch on a couple of points which were raised. Ms Moran is absolutely right to highlight the scandalous issue of the hospital trolley numbers which the Minister was always happy to accept when in opposition and which previous Ministers, in fairness to them, such as James Reilly, with whom we would have had many political differences, never disputed. Yet suddenly, this year and at the back end of last year, the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, started disputing the trolley numbers. This is all on the record in the Seanad where I have had stand-up rows with him in this regard because it is a gross insult to the members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, in particular and all of the staff, to dispute these figures. Of course, anyone across the mid-west will tell you the INMO figures are valid.

What has been more frustrating is that both Deputy Quinlivan and I have tried to address this issue through various Topical Issue debates and Commencement matters, and the last four times we tried to do this, the Minister has not even come in to address us. I find that entirely unacceptable. The point made by our guests is absolutely right in that we should not be treated less favourably than other people.

This is all been compounded by a recruitment freeze. I, along with Deputy Quinlivan, met staff from the hospital only three weeks ago. They are in absolute dread because of the recruitment freeze. One of the workers said she expects the hospital to turn into a nursing home during the winter because there just will not be the ability to move patients to get the care they need outside of the hospital. One clear example is the home help situation, where there are 6,000 people on the waiting list and a freeze is now in place, so we cannot even hire any more home helps. As things stand, things are only going to get worse.

The other point I would share with the witnesses is that the turnover rate for staff in University Hospital Limerick, UHL, is just shy of 21%. One in five staff members is leaving. It is an extraordinary rate, even by HSE standards, but it shows the depth of the crisis there and now the hospital cannot actually replace those staff members. We had an horrendous collapse across the entire service at the end of last year and the beginning of January and now we have a recruitment freeze to contend with as we head into this winter, so it is very concerning.

The status quocannot stand, which is the clear position Sinn Féin has. We have seen more broken promises on this. Again, Ms Moran and others are quite right to point out that Ministers, after they have left or before they take the job, say it is not acceptable, but we continue to be denied the health services that we are required to have. I also agree with what Ms Moran said that none of us are medical experts and we cannot prescribe what needs to be done, but Sinn Féin has been very clear in calling for an independent clinical audit to be done as a matter of urgency and to consider all possibilities, including the reopening of accident and emergency departments, and to report back as soon as possible. Does the Mid-West Hospital Campaign support that call because I believe that is the key to having this issue finally resolved? That and, as Deputy O'Donoghue correctly said, a change of Government are needed because we are not going to see change under this Government.

I want to thank our guest speakers for having come in to our committee today.