John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I very much welcome and support the motion being put forward by Fine Gael and the Labour Party. I listened to the contributions of previous contributors, Deputies Devins and Fiona O'Malley. Deputy O'Malley said this was a Government which listened to patients. Not only does it not listen to patients, it does not listen to their loved ones and it does not listen to Deputies. The Government set up the HSE, which is a further layer of bureaucracy. We find it very difficult to even get answers to parliamentary questions at this stage.

One only has to look at the treatment of patients by this Government to see it does not seem to care. I have dealt with a number of Ministers during the tenure of this Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government. I tried to make representations to them on behalf of those who suffered symphysiotomy but I was stonewalled. Let us consider the Dunne inquiry and whether the loved ones were heeded. They have received no satisfaction, nor have the victims of the hepatitis C scandal. It seems the routine is that the wall comes up every time. This is regrettable.

Deputy Devins referred to a procedure to examine adverse effects. In the aftermath of a bad election, politicians hold a post-mortem and consider what went wrong. There is no post-mortem examination in the case of clinical adverse effects. This is also the case in Britain with the NHS.

I urge the Minister of State to read an article in yesterday's The Independent. A pilot, Mr. Martin Bromiley, gives an account of the routine operation carried out on his wife. The operation went wrong and she died. He examined safety procedures in the NHS and was shocked to find out that there was no training of doctors and nurses to deal with emergency situations. The article states:

The risk of dying on a scheduled aircraft flight today is one in 10 million. By contrast, Bromiley now knows, the risk of dying in hospital as a result of medical error is one in 300. That means hospital treatment is 33,000 times more dangerous than flying on a scheduled airline.

Either one can be confident boarding an airplane or one should be very nervous going into hospital.

A Fianna Fáil Member told me that one would be better off having an operation on the kitchen table, considering the high rates of MRSA in our hospitals. Mr. Bromiley has been asked to speak at a number of conferences on the need for proper training for those in operating theatres and elsewhere in our hospitals. During Mrs. Bromiley's operation, a simple tracheotomy was needed but none of the medical staff at the operating table could do it. The article quotes Mr. Bernard Ribeiro of the Royal College of Surgeons: "Professional failures are more often due to behavioural difficulties, personal conflict, lack of insight, systems failure or defective infrastructure than technical failings or lack of knowledge."

If we had protection of whistleblowers, we could make some progress. A whistleblowers Bill was published but it became stuck on Committee Stage and has not been seen since. There is fear of accountability and transparency. If we had it, Leas Cross would not have happened, nor would the case of Dr. Neary at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda. I support this proposal for legislation.

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