Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

When it comes to the crisis in accident and emergency services and other areas of the health service the Government is the problem, and that problem will not be solved until the Government gets out of the way and lets those of us who are prepared and able to deal with the problem resolve it.

In regard to accident and emergency services, there is no solving of the problem without increasing the bed capacity in our hospitals. I will illustrate this by reference to the experience in my constituency. I hear many constituents complain that if they need to be sent to hospital they are dispatched directly into St. Vincent's hospital. There was a time when they would have been sent to Loughlinstown or St. Michael's Hospital, the two local hospitals, but now they are only used as staging posts until the patients are transferred by ambulance to St. Vincent's hospital.

I have heard repeated complaints about the length of time people have to wait in accident and emergency departments even though it is acknowledged they receive very good care when they eventually get into a ward. St. Vincent's hospital cannot cater for the hospital needs of an area of the south east of this country stretching from Ballsbridge to Rosslare. The solution to the accident and emergency problem and the hospital needs of the people of my constituency and of neighbouring constituencies in Wicklow and north Wexford will not be met until there is a serious investment in the two local hospitals in the constituency I represent, Loughlinstown hospital and St. Michael's Hospital in Dún Laoghaire. No matter how many times it is called a major hospital, one hospital cannot physically be expected to cater for the needs of one of the fastest growing areas of population in the country. That problem is replicated many times throughout the country. It seems that the strategy is being pursued by stealth whereby accident and emergency services are being concentrated more and more in the large general hospitals.

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