Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

There were photographs in all the newspapers of public representatives from Fine Gael and other political parties complaining about the problems in accident and emergency units. I attended one protest in Drogheda and spoke to the nurses and staff, who are under dreadful pressure. I am not aware of the case the Minister of State referred to, but there is a serious problem throughout the country in accident and emergency wards.

The most common complaint I get is from people who are retired, have given their lives to the State, reared their family and done their best, but end up, through no fault of their own, in accident and emergency departments. They feel bad having to lie on trolleys for perhaps a day or two and feel the Government is not providing the care to which they are entitled. The Minister for Health and Children has been in this office for less than a year, but she sat at the Cabinet table for the past five years and, while she has introduced new plans, the Government has done nothing about the problems.

I am concerned about the so-called Health Service Executive. It is somewhat like Alcoholics Anonymous, one does not know who the people involved are and cannot find out. It is very difficult to get information about what is going on in our hospitals. There are no performance indicators for the HSE, there are no discussions in the Dáil about it and it is not responsible in terms of parliamentary questions. We do not know who the people involved are, nor the changes they have made. We do not know what is going on until we see and hear from nurses. It is appalling. Previously there were health boards, with all their faults, but they are gone. Now there is the HSE and we cannot get information from it. We are told in replies to parliamentary questions that the HSE will respond in due course, but we do not know whether it will do so.

I suggest one reasonable change to the Minister. There is an extremely successful system in operation in the Department of Social and Family Affairs whereby when one submits a parliamentary question one receives a phone call within an hour and the answer is supplied within a day, if possible. A central location in the HSE is needed where all parliamentary questions are responded to immediately and a timescale given if the answer cannot be given within 24 or 48 hours. The neglect of parliamentary questions is appalling and unacceptable.

I do not know what hospital the Minister of State was referring to, but I was in a Dublin hospital recently where the care was world class. When one walked the corridors or entered the lifts, however, there were unpainted, dirty surfaces and a lack of well lit, well maintained corridors. If I am healthy and well I can walk through but if I am unwell I do not know where the bugs are and we cannot eradicate them because of serious problems in our hospitals. I would like to see an active policy of painting and cleaning down all surfaces in all hospitals. The neglect is appalling and unacceptable.

The doctor on call service is a wonderful scheme. It keeps people out of the accident and emergency units where it is working successfully. Many counties do not have a doctor on call service which leads to additional pressure on accident and emergency departments. I ask that the doctor on call service be rolled out to the rest of the country immediately. I welcome it as a method of keeping people out of accident and emergency departments.

Never was there so much money in the State and never were we so well off, yet the state in which the Government has left accident and emergency departments is appalling. It is unacceptable and a disgrace.

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