Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I wish to share a minute of my time with my colleague, Deputy Crawford. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this important issue and I join Deputy Brendan Smith in welcoming the Minister to the House at this late hour.

The failure so far to have the promised inquiry into the dispute involving two now-suspended consultants at Cavan General Hospital is grossly unfair to the staff of the hospital, to the two suspended consultants and above all to the people of the region served by the hospital. At this stage the inquiry should be concluded and its recommendations already acted upon. I reiterate my call to the Minister to intervene directly and immediately in this unacceptable matter. It is a scandal that a dispute involving the IHCA over what doctors serving on the inquiry may be recompensed has resulted in this delay.

Back in August, when matters first came to a head, I called on the health board executive to ensure that the suspensions caused minimum disruption to patient services, as it had promised in its statement, but that has not been the case. Even prior to the suspensions, the dispute placed additional pressure upon the staff of the hospital. With the closure of the accident and emergency department at Monaghan General Hospital the position became untenable and this has continued up to the present. The Government bears much of the responsibility for the now inadequate provision of acute hospital care in the Cavan-Monaghan region. This follows on the closure of the maternity unit and the accident and emergency department in Monaghan.

The death of nine year old Frances Sheridan of Cootehill has added to concerns about the difficulties at Cavan General Hospital. I visited the family of the deceased child yesterday in Cootehill and I again express my sympathy to Brian and Rosemary Sheridan and their children in this time of terrible grief. However, pending the result of the autopsy and the report of the health board inquiry, it is too early to draw conclusions. Whether this tragedy is directly related to current difficulties at the hospital is an open question. The family expressed gratitude in my presence for the care and support they have received at Cavan General Hospital in the past, which I and countless thousands of others would also willingly declare. However, it is long past time for all these issues to be addressed, including the commencement and conclusion of the promised inquiry into what led up to the suspension of the two consultants, the stabilisation of the consultant presence at the hospital and the restoration of on-call status to Monaghan General Hospital, which is a related difficulty.

See this speech in context