Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I appreciate that the Ceann Comhairle selected my issue for discussion. It is not new and relates to the Health Service Executive, accident and emergency services and the hospital system. I have raised it on a number of occasions and I am doing so today because of an incident which occurred last weekend.

I called into the accident and emergency department at the Mater Hospital at about 1 p.m. on Saturday where I met a number of people who had been in the department overnight. I was particularly concerned about one family whose elderly mother, afflicted by Alzheimer's disease, was sitting on a chair. She had pneumonia and had been in the department since 1.30 p.m. the previous day. The family wished that she would get a bed but there was no sign that this would happen. I contacted them later that evening and she still had no bed. During the evening she had wandered around looking for the toilet, but got lost and was not found for some time. I spoke to staff in the bed management section of the hospital who indicated there was little that could be done because there were no beds available. The family telephoned me the following day and the situation was the same. At one stage on Saturday the woman in question had been in second position for a bed but on Sunday she had sunk to fifth in line. Eventually she was given a bed at 9 p.m. that evening, having spent almost three days sitting on a chair or lying on a trolley. She was not given a permanent bed but rather a bed in the admissions lounge, a halfway house between the accident and emergency department and the area where she would be given a permanent bed where she could be treated on a regular basis. She is still in the admissions lounge, a kind of limbo to where patients can move from the purgatory of the accident and emergency department without going to the heaven of an actual ward where they can be treated properly.

Clearly, it is very unsatisfactory that anybody should be placed in these circumstances, particularly an elderly person suffering from Alzheimer's disease and pneumonia. It is not satisfactory from the point of view of the staff either because they wish to treat patients properly. In order for them to do this a bed is required; otherwise patients suffer and staff are unable to carry out their duties properly.

That is the case of an individual who presented last weekend. Although she forms part of the statistics, she is a person. We receive statistics every day, Monday to Friday, from the HSE, indicating no one is in an accident and emergency department for more than 24 hours and that very few are there for more than 12 hours. Weekend arrivals are not included in such statistics, when the backlog and bottlenecks are evident. From that perspective, what we are getting is a series of statistical works of fiction rather than the facts. The Minister has had a number of years to resolve this problem. She reminded us at one stage that Rome had not been built in a day and told us that she would sort the issue out. Clearly, her solution has not worked. She must provide the necessary beds in public hospitals and stop talking endlessly about the fine beds she will provide in the private sector on public hospital grounds.

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