Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

This is a Minister who is stripping services from hospitals and not replacing them with anything better. Question No. 17 in the name of Deputy Coonan queries the value for money achieved in respect of the extra moneys spent on hygiene because more money does not mean cleaner hospitals. We need to ask what happened when information about the deaths in Loughlinstown hospital became known. These are not just statistics; they are deceased persons. They went into hospital to get better but got these hospital acquired infections and are now dead. Regardless of having hand gel or solution at the entrances to the wards or at the doors in this case, the monitoring and assessment of the value for money achieved must be examined. Extra money does not mean cleaner hospitals.

The 15 people in Ennis who passed away all had hospital acquired infections. The Tánaiste has been the paymaster general. He is paying €15 billion to a health system. This year, €170 million is being spent on cleaning our hospitals and we cannot get that system right. I do not know if the Tánaiste can appreciate the real fear, anxiety and lack of confidence people have about going into hospital.

God rest her, Ms Kathleen Whiston went into Loughlinstown hospital to be treated for a diabetes problem and management of an infection. She died, as did 16 others there and 15 in Ennis General Hospital, and we do not know what has happened in other hospitals around the country. The Tánaiste is paying €170 million for hospital hygiene but has no monitoring of the impact or benefit of it. Extra money does not mean extra hygiene. Through the HSE the Tánaiste is paying private contractors huge sums of money with no assessment of the outcome of that work.

What happened in Loughlinstown after it became known that C. diff, MRSA and hospital acquired infection were the causes of death in those persons? What happened in Ennis when it became known that 15 deceased people had hospital acquired infections? The end result is that while we are spending a significant amount of money, we cannot keep our hospitals clean. When the Tánaiste and I were much younger, one could smell the disinfectant from 200 yd. away. People want to know they can have confidence that when they go into hospital to be treated for an ailment or illness, they will not die because of lack of hygiene or a hospital acquired infection. That is the problem to which the Minister for Health and Children should apply herself with the money the Tánaiste has given her for extra hygiene controls. Where is the assessment, the value for money and the extra benefit? Patients are dying.

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