Damien English (Meath, Fine Gael)

I am delighted to say a few words on this issue. I recently received a phone call from a lady in Navan who went to the casualty department in the hospital in Drogheda. She entered the department at 7 p.m. with severe pains in her stomach and back. She was only seen briefly at midnight and it was 4.15 a.m. before she was properly examined. During her nine-hour wait, she watched a child vomit on the floor in the casualty department, yet it was three hours before that was cleaned up. Someone cleaned the room at midnight and took three and a half black refuse sacks of rubbish out of the accident and emergency department. We are trying to prevent MRSA and other bugs in our accident and emergency departments, yet these departments are covered in filth. All that is needed is for one person to be put in charge of each accident and emergency department. A similar level of responsibility should occur on the wards.

During this lady's wait in the accident and emergency department, an ambulance arrived with a patient and had to wait for two hours before its trolley could be returned and it could leave again. The driver could not leave because the accident and emergency department in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital needed the trolley.

A few weeks ago, the Tánaiste declared the accident and emergency unit situation to be an emergency, but it has been one for years. It is too late to be putting our hands up and wondering what to do about it. People on the Government side of the House will speak of the causes of this and how it cannot be fixed, while we will speak about why it can be fixed. However, if there is real political will in this House, we can make changes quickly. The smoking ban is a great example of this and it was carried out by the Department of Health and Children. It was done because it sounded good, but it was political will that delivered on that. As a young politician, that proved to me that we can do things in this House when we really want to do so.

I do not want to be told that it was the consultant's, the health board's or someone else's fault, because the buck stops with the Minister of Health and Children. I do not blame this Government alone, but we have been told for ten years that things are going to get better. We have had money and time to make changes in the past ten years, but we have not done so. We have had major problems, yet the buck has been passed to someone else.

The Tánaiste told the House today that certain things that will be done could not have been done under the old health board system. That is nonsense because the HSE is just the health boards with another layer on top. Nothing has changed because most of the same people are still employed. We did not have to wait for the advent of the HSE to make changes. We could have had changes a long time ago, but we did not make them.

The main problems with accident and emergency departments are quite simple. We need more beds, more staff and more resources. Day after day, the Taoiseach tells us that the problems in accident and emergency departments have nothing to do with resources, but that is not the case. Accident and emergency cover in my hospital was supposed to close down last November owing solely to a lack of resources. We were short of surgical staff owing to a lack of €100,000. That was a resource issue and while it has not been fully solved, we are getting there.

The problem was due to a shortage of money, which is a problem across the north east. We are about €60 million short per head of the population in the past five or six years. We are not getting the health service we need for the area. The accident and emergency department in my local hospital in Navan is a portakabin with about six trolleys. The hospital needs a purpose-built accident and emergency department. How can staff be expected to deliver a service to at least 20,000 clients per year? The accident and emergency unit has occupied a portakabin for a long time, yet the population it serves has trebled to 200,000.

Last March, the Tánaiste had the cheek to claim that the accident and emergency unit at Navan hospital was upgraded. It was painted and its chairs were rearranged but that is not an upgrade. We must have proper purpose-built accident and emergency units. A population of 200,000 needs an adequate building and sufficient staff. The surgical team in Navan hospital has one and a half surgeons, whereas most surgical teams have at least three. The team has been criticised for not performing well and reports point out problems in the hospital which arose from the underfunding of staff and resources.

I could continue for ages to discuss problems in primary care, home help services and public health nursing. Public health nurses can no longer do their jobs because there are not enough to cover the growing population. Deputy McManus noted that community care beds in County Meath have been reduced by 25, whereas the population has increased by 40%. We are not being looked after and there is no point in the Tánaiste expressing surprise that there is an emergency.

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