Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

In the last 12 months I had some experience of seeing the health service from a bed and I pay tribute to the Mater Private Hospital, where I was for a short time, and in particular Beaumont Hospital. We hear all sorts of bunkum about how these issues will be solved. The consultants, nurses and other staff are under pressure. Above all they need step-down beds to which people who need longer treatment than expected can be moved. They do not need a new hospital. Since I was in Beaumont it estimated it needs approximately an extra 200 step-down beds to ensure the acute beds can be used. Imagine if a loved one was waiting three months in serious pain for neurosurgery while somebody, through no fault of his or her own, was holding up one of those beds for a number of weeks or months. We must deal with that as a matter of urgency.

I return to the situation in my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan. Many areas of Monaghan General Hospital are under-utilised. The new, state-of-the-art theatre was being used for national treatment purchase type schemes in Northern Ireland when the hatchet was brought down on it by some outside body and it was closed. I urge the Minister to ensure that facility is used. I listened with pain to the Tánaiste talking about the scarcity of numbers in the Cavan-Monaghan region. If the people were allowed to be treated in the Cavan-Monaghan region instead of being sent away under the national treatment purchase scheme there would be plenty of work for the theatre and hospital.

The late Mr. Benny McCullough, who lived a few yards from Monaghan hospital gates, died on the way to Cavan. Since his widow died, their handicapped daughter whom they both loved and looked after, must be looked after by the State for the rest of her life. The Tánaiste talks about safe service. How safe was that service? It seems to be safe if one dies outside the hospital but not if one dies inside it. Many lives have been saved by Monaghan hospital because people were brought there by car. I urge the Minister to ensure the Tánaiste takes a little time to visit Monaghan General Hospital, talks to the people there and sees the situation. She has plenty of time to visit other institutions including pubs, which the Government seems to be good at.

Cavan General Hospital was never extended to take the overflow from Monaghan. Some 20 to 30 patients are on trolleys there every week. I have a letter from a Monaghan nurse who gave her life service to the State health service and who had to spend three desperate days on a trolley in Cavan waiting for a bed in Beaumont. I hope when the Minister receives this letter he will read it in full and see what he is imposing on the people of Cavan and Monaghan through neglect. It is a failure of management to provide extra beds. There are beds available in the psychiatric section of the hospital, where there is less than half usage of the beds, and with realistic thinking these could be used. Other beds are used for full-time elder care. Some of these could be used as step-down beds if the occupants were moved out to permanent homes. There are many ways of dealing with this that need little cost, just some common sense.

Deputy Ring mentioned subvention. Why should somebody have to wait eight weeks to have a subvention form dealt with? If any other business operated in this way it would not survive two days. Because subvention forms are being held up, patients are being held in wards. Another issue is the failure of home help. The Ceann Comhairle is aware of a case in our county in which a person moved from Donegal, where he received 12 hours of home help, to Carrickmacross, County Monaghan where he receives two hours. How does the Minister explain this difference? How does the Minister explain that medical cards are not available in areas such as Cavan-Monaghan, compared to areas such as Cork? The figures show that there is a discrepancy in allocation. Why should a community welfare officer not be able to hand out a medical card? Why must it go through six different layers? I urge the Minister to examine the administration, how the health system is being worked and deliver what the people require and could have.

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