Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

I thank my colleague, Deputy Mary Upton, for sharing time.

Like Deputy Upton I do not believe five minutes is enough on the issue of health. I will speak tonight on the whole area of hospital acquired infections. I would like to speak, as well, on childhood diabetes, which I have raised numerous times in this House, and the lack of treatment facilities and care in Cork despite all the rhetoric from the Government. The parents of children as young as 18 months are handed an orange and a syringe and told to practise with them and they will be fine. Then there are the consequences into adulthood for the children concerned and the poor health they will finally end up with as a result of the neglect of Government in a time of boom.

I listened today to the debate on the economy and every Government speaker told the House we were the envy of the world. I accept we are when it comes to the economy, but people who admire us for this are appalled at what we have done with that boom in terms of services. The health service is just one of those areas.

I want to talk about hospital acquired infections. Most people are aware of MRSA, but there are several others. I will talk of my experience in this regard, as no stranger to hospitals. During my lifetime I have been in hospital every second year, on average. I attended a meeting recently of people who had lost loved ones through MRSA. It should never happen, but when it does it is as if it has not occurred at all. There is no admission of guilt and no traceability. We have traceability in the food industry, but none when it comes to our loved ones who die from hospital acquired infections. I keep hearing about the Department's plans. Several reports have been published about cleaning hospitals, and doctors and nurses cleaning their hands, but what is really needed is a campaign to allow patients to be comfortable while challenging people to wash their hands, without them feeling threatened as a result.

In the main, medical staff are good people whose entire focus in life is on treating patients and ensuring they get better. When will we install in hospitals clean rooms where the staff change into uniforms from their day clothes and go to work and, when finished, change back into their street clothes and leave? On any day of the week in Cork hospitals one may see medical staff leave at 1 o'clock to do their shopping and come back without changing their clothes. I have witnessed this in hospitals. When are we going to get real about infection control? I have seen filthy toilets being cleaned extensively and the same cleaning utensils being used on wards. When will we accept that infection is carried, not just by patients, but by people treating them and those who are in and out of hospitals? When will something be done about it?

The Minister for Health and Children abolished health boards and employed more staff. In effect, the only thing she did was to remove the people's voice from those boards because the elected representatives knew the everyday concerns of the population. She produced an executive that was at arm's length, she said, because of excessive interference. Arm's length usually means out of one's grasp and out of control. When are we going to return to the health boards? When will we allow the people to have true control over their health service?

See this speech in context