Dáil debates

Wednesday, 6 February 2008

Health Services: Motion (Resumed)

 

8:00 pm

Photo of Seymour CrawfordSeymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I thank my colleague, Deputy James Reilly, for giving me the opportunity to again discuss the important health issues regarding lack of services to the disabled, those with mental health issues and those with cystic fibrosis etc. In the few minutes available I will speak specifically about the real cutbacks in the north east.

The Minister for Health and Children and Professor Drumm have given many commitments that no services would be removed until as good or better services become available. In recent weeks, however, two consultants have been removed from Monaghan General Hospital as well as beds, so the treatment room there can no longer give the same full service. This in turn means patients will have to go to Cavan, Drogheda or even Dublin. These are patients who in the past were dealt with perfectly well and safely in Monaghan General Hospital.

Mr. Finbarr Lennon, senior consultant, with full knowledge of the north east, has clearly stated that Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda is incapable of dealing with its present numbers and is currently unsafe. Yet the Minister, Deputy Harney, and Professor Drumm insist on carrying on with the implementation of the Hanly report under the guise of the teamwork operational programme, which Mr. Lennon argues is unworkable.

At this late stage I beg that the Minister, Deputy Harney, preferably in the absence of Professor Drumm, sit down with the elected Members of the north-east region to work out a realistic way forward. Surely the Minister can no longer oversee the wanton waste at management and other levels within the HSE while services are being wound down at all the five hospitals in the north east.

I am glad to hear my colleague, Deputy Margaret Conlon, making a statement in the House. I know if she is to carry through on her contribution, she will vote with us on this side.

Medical cards are being removed because of a lack of finance in the north east and even being refused for seriously ill patients. The last straw in mismanagement was when the President recently opened a facility in Monaghan for the adult handicapped. Although it had been built for two years by Mr. Dan Rogan and the Association of Parents and Friends of the Mentally Handicapped, no staff was appointed to run the centre. In that context, the only three available beds for respite of young handicapped are now in the process of being removed.

We do not expect to have a Beaumont or Blackrock Clinic type of hospital in Monaghan but we deserve to be treated as human beings and be guaranteed, as the Minister promised, that services will be retained until better is available. I have no wish to see the HSE running over budget but I humbly suggest that it is not the closure of Monaghan General Hospital or taking it off call that will solve the problem in the long term. We need a real reconfiguration of management and administrative structure.

The former Minister responsible for health, Deputy Michéal Martin, organised 150 reports and inquiries, with 115 of these costing €32 million. We have no costings for the others. How many reports and inquiries has the current Minister instigated and at what cost?

The Indecon report on pharmacists, sponsored by the Government, was brought in but completely ignored. In a reply last night on the pharmacist issue, the Minister indicated her wish to find a way of reaching new arrangements, adapting what has been a traditional process to arrive at a revised pricing arrangement. The Minister has no arrangements as such with the pharmacists and it is a disgrace.

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