Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on the motion. Everybody has experience of the problems in accident and emergency departments, particularly the staff in those departments. Those staff are under tremendous pressure, are stressed out and overworked, and in most accident and emergency departments the staff have to work in very small spaces. In my county, Wexford, I meet the staff in accident and emergency departments on a regular basis. The union representative said the staff at Wexford General Hospital are totally stressed out by the amount of people who are coming to the accident and emergency department there. They are stressed because they have to rush here and there from one end of the day to the other. There are constant queues of people outside the door of the accident and emergency departments of Wexford General Hospital and most other hospitals in this country.

I have spoken to patients who had to wait at accident and emergency departments for five, six or seven hours. I recently spoke to a lady whose son was injured in a hurling game. He went into the accident and emergency department at 4.30 p.m. on a Saturday evening and did not leave until 12.30 a.m. the next morning. That is totally unacceptable. Having waited from 4.30 p.m. to 12.30 a.m., he was told to go to Waterford Regional Hospital the next day. That is totally unworkable and totally unsatisfactory. No business would be run in such a manner. Accident and emergency departments should be run like businesses — they should be able to deal with people as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Deputy Cooper-Flynn spoke about the case of an elderly person from a rural part of her constituency who was discharged from a hospital at 2.30 a.m. I am familiar with a similar case in County Wexford not too long ago, when an elderly lady in her 80s who is blind and lives alone was dropped home in a taxi in the early hours of the morning. The taxi driver did not even get out of the car to open the woman's door. The woman got into bed when she got inside her house, but she fell out during the night and was readmitted to Wexford General Hospital the following day. She spent three or four weeks in Wexford General Hospital following that fall. It could be argued the woman was holding up the supply of a bed during that time. She should have been treated in the first place, rather than being sent home to a rural part of County Wexford alone. It is totally unacceptable that a person with a sight impairment was treated in such a manner.

The accident and emergency department in Wexford General Hospital is very small. It has just six or eight beds, which is totally unsatisfactory. The patients are almost on top of each other. The small department fills up on a regular basis because it has to deal with many people each year. One of the major problems in County Wexford is that its population almost doubles in the summer months, from May to August or September, when many tourists come to the county. Children who are on holiday are brought straight to the local accident and emergency department when they get injured while playing. This is a major concern for the hospital manager in County Wexford over the summer months. It is great that we have accident and emergency consultants, but they are of no use if they only work between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Most of the work of accident and emergency departments is generated after 5 p.m., especially at weekends. Many people are admitted to such departments at weekends when injuries occur while people are playing sports like hurling and football. That can cause chronic problems for nurses and doctors. There are plans to build a new accident and emergency department at Wexford General Hospital. A Deputy referred earlier to a Minister visiting a constituency to turn the sod on a new development. It is great to see someone coming to turn the sod, but there is not much use in turning the sod unless further action is taken. In this case, the accident and emergency department needs to be built.

I feel strongly about the fact that the CT scan machine in County Wexford is manned just five days a week, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. The machine cost the Department very little because it funded just a small percentage of the cost. The larger percentage of the funding — up to 80% of it — was acquired by the people of County Wexford by means of fundraising. The people were led to understand the machine would be in operation seven days a week, 24 hours a day, but that has not happened. The Department has not lived up to the commitment it gave the people of Wexford six or seven years ago. It is totally unacceptable that the machine is not in operation other than between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. between Monday and Friday. The people of Wexford accepted in good faith the Department's commitment to ensure the machine would be in operation at all times.

I would like to have a clearer understanding of an issue relating to trolleys. Perhaps the Minister or the Minister of State can confirm, when concluding this debate, whether patients on trolleys have to pay the full bills for hospital beds. One of my constituents who spent five nights in Wexford General Hospital, four nights on trolleys and one night in a bed, is due to go to court soon. I assure the House the man will go to jail before he pays the amount he has been charged. He did not enjoy the level of service or comfort he would have received if he had been in a bed. He has been charged the same amount he would have been charged if he had spent five nights in a bed. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Tim O'Malley, to clear up this matter. Do people have to pay to spend nights on trolleys? The number of people on trolleys at Wexford General Hospital is one of the highest of any of the hospitals outside our cities. Some 19 people were on trolleys at the hospital yesterday, 25 April, and I suppose it is more or less the same today. The number of people on trolleys at the hospital is usually one of the highest of any of the rural hospitals. I ask the Minister to address this matter as soon as possible because people are constantly being left on trolleys.

Elective surgery is being cancelled on a regular basis as a consequence of the lack of beds at Wexford General Hospital. Many people have been telephoned at 7 a.m. on the day of their operations to be told they should not attend for surgery because there are no beds for them. It is totally unacceptable. Such people are being returned to waiting lists for two or three months. It is unfair on a person who has prepared for surgery, especially an elderly person, to get a telephone call from the hospital manager on the morning of the operation to say no bed is available and they will have to wait. I have raised this matter with consultants on a number of occasions, to be told the hospital is full and no beds or trolleys are available for people who are due for elective surgery.

I ask the Tánaiste and the Minister of State to address the major issues in County Wexford and to ensure Wexford General Hospital receives the same slice of the cake as the other hospitals throughout the country. I have asked the Tánaiste on numerous occasions to visit the hospital, to witness the chronic overcrowding there and to learn about exactly what is happening there. It is sad she has not yet found an opportunity to visit the hospital. I emphasise to her the importance of visiting Wexford General Hospital, where she can see what is happening at first hand.

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