John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

Only last week I heard of the case of a gentleman who was admitted with a heart attack to an intensive care unit. His son-in-law told me the skylight above his bed was covered with cobwebs. Hygiene simply does not exist in some of our hospitals. The Tánaiste and Minister for Health touched on the point that, in the old days, when we had no money and no Celtic tiger, our hospitals were spotless. Now that we have the money, we have private companies in — more privatisation, which the Tánaiste favours — and many hospitals are filthy. I have visited some lately and the problem is simply appalling. The question has once again been asked what action will be taken. Will we continue to rely on private companies to do the cleaning in our hospitals?

The Tánaiste touched on the appropriate use of antibiotics. What action is taken against general practitioners who simply hand out antibiotics as if they were Smarties, sometimes under pressure from pharmaceutical companies? Many are not at all careful in the way that they hand them out. Can anything be done about such GPs? I stress that many GPs are responsible, but many are not.

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