Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

An issue I have raised before is security in emergency departments and admissions and the appalling abuse dished out to staff by would-be patients, frustrated patients or people of whom it is difficult to discover why they are there in the first place. The abuse experienced by medical staff, including nurses, doctors and attendants, is appalling and has to be witnessed to be fully appreciated. I do not expect anybody to want to work in those kinds of conditions. That type of abuse should not happen. There is a security element that needs to be attended to urgently in order that patients and staff are not intimidated and to prevent the health service getting a bad name as a result of the activities in and around emergency departments.

An issue brought to my attention recently concerns cancer patients and others with life-threatening or life-altering illnesses who find difficulty in getting car parking. They feel some special arrangement should and could be made for people who have to repeatedly attend for treatment at a hospital and find the same thing occurs repeatedly, namely, that they have to scout around for a car parking space. The space is not needed for a long time, but they still have to look for it. People in this situation already have enough problems to contend with without having the added stress of wondering if they will be able to find a car parking space and whether their car will have been clamped when they come back out.

I very seldom become locally focused because I do not believe that is the job we should be doing here, but I am going to do it now. I have mentioned this issue in relation to Naas hospital before. I am very disappointed at the slow progress in moving it on. It has been on the stocks, as it were, for the past two and a half, three or four years. Approval has been given but very little is happening. Naas hospital is right bang in the middle of the most rapidly growing population area in the country. Other places will claim this particular distinction, but Naas hospital is right in the middle of this reality. Naas is under growing pressure and I ask that the HSE look at this hospital carefully with a view to ensuring the extension required and the extension of services required are brought about rapidly to meet the standards of what is required in the shortest time possible.

We are fortunate we have a good primary care centre in Naas. This is very important. We also have one in Celbridge, but this may not be able to handle the demand for care in the future. There is an urgent need to have a primary care centre in Maynooth and one in Leixlip. To take Maynooth as an example, again the population in the town has increased from about 10,000 people to more than 20,000 people, plus a student population of 17,000. The demand is going to be dramatic there. It is no good saying we will deal with this situation in the future. The future is now, and we must provide for it in the best possible way. I am raising this issue not in the expectation of getting an answer right now, but I do want to get an answer and I want a particular emphasis to be put on areas of population and demand increase. This increase in demand for health services is similar to the demand seen for places in schools, etc.