Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 32 to discuss a matter of urgent importance, namely, the failure of the Government and the HSE, one year on from the publication of the emergency department task force report, to reduce the numbers of patients waiting on trolleys in accident and emergency departments due to a lack of hospital beds, with five major hospitals — Beaumont, Sligo General, the Mid-Western Regional in Limerick, Portiuncula in Ballinasloe and University College Hospital Galway — showing significant increases in numbers on trolleys as compared to this time last year and the need to provide additional hospital beds to address this crisis, as well as the delivery of the promised network of primary care centres and the reversal of the disastrous policy of centralisation of virtually all hospital services to those centres which are currently under most pressure.

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