Liam Twomey (Wexford, Independent)

I have four specific questions and one general question to put in respect of this matter. If the Minister of State cannot answer the four specific questions, perhaps he would reply to me in respect of them at a later date. All my questions relate to Wexford General Hospital. Before posing them, I acknowledge that certain actions have been taken to aid the hospital, such as an increase in consultant numbers, the medical admissions unit working and doing an excellent job, approval being granted in respect of appointing an accident and emergency consultant and the Caredoc out of hours co-operative working very well in the primary care sector.

The first of my specific questions is when funding to staff the new geriatric day ward will be provided. The ward was built more than a year ago but, unfortunately, is not being staffed at present. The second question relates to the maternity unit, the number of births at which has increased from 1,400 to 1,800. When will funding to employ extra midwives be made available because the staff in the unit are overworked? My third question relates to the medical director, Dr. Paddy McKiernan, who resigned from an implementation committee for an extra 19 beds for Wexford General Hospital. Will these 19 beds ever materialise? My final specific question is whether the Minister will stress to the South Eastern Health Board the importance of appointing the accident and emergency consultant as soon as possible, especially in light of the seriousness of the situation for both doctors and patients in County Wexford.

On my general question, in trying to maintain standards, we must maintain progress. How can we possibly maintain standards at Wexford General Hospital and similar hospitals throughout the country when we continue to rely on the wholly inadequate Hanly report in respect of reform of the health services? This report does not deal with industrial relations issues, and the future of all hospital services, especially acute hospital services, are dependent on such issues.

We talk about transferring workloads from the acute hospitals to the primary care sector, but the primary care strategy has more or less stalled. It is unlikely that general practitioners already working in the primary care sector will be able to cope with the extra workload. The ambulance service will be inadequate in terms of coping with additional journey times if local acute units are closed in any of the 36 hospitals because most ambulance drivers are not trained emergency medical technicians.

They have basic first-aid training. If a drip-line fell out of a patient no one in the ambulance service would be legally covered to replace it. Considering the extra journey times that will result from the proposed reforms of the health service, this is an important issue.

The final issue, which is under discussion at present, is that of consultants' contract. Reform of the health service in terms of the EU working time directive cannot work unless the consultants' contract is changed. This issue is not being progressed.

The Hanly report is being sold to patients in areas such as the one I represent, where we have a general hospital which feeds into an excellent, if under-resourced, regional hospital. I hope the Minister of State will answer these four questions at a later date and comment on the final question.

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