Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I indicated before the adjournment of this Bill last week that Sinn Féin would oppose it, uniquely, of all those who contributed. We are even more determined in our opposition this week. In the meantime, the management of the HSE, which is given more responsibilities in this Bill, has been exposed yet again as grossly incompetent and unfit to run a health service. It should not be forgotten that the HSE is a creature of this Fianna Fáil-led Government which set it up. The Government tries to hide behind it but central to HSE failures is the disastrous health policy of this Government.

Yesterday, due to the bravery of Melissa and Michael Redmond in speaking out, we learned of major flaws in prenatal care in this State. It has shaken the confidence of women in that care system and very understandably so. This is a terrible development because so many good people work in that system and provide excellent care. Management at the Lourdes hospital in Drogheda and in the HSE must be held accountable for the litany of failures that have come to light as a result of this family speaking out.

The internal hospital report, which was to the media, should be published in full. I seek a confirmation from the Minister in respect of that today. The report exposes bad clinical practice, outdated and inadequate equipment, lack of guidelines on scanning, no permanent trained staff attached to the early pregnancy unit and no written guidelines for early pregnancy problems.

Where was the oversight and responsibility of hospital and HSE management in allowing this to develop and continue? Both levels of management failed miserably yet again. How widespread is this problem now that we know of similar cases in Galway and Louth? How many more cases will present over the next several days?

At hospital, regional and State level, the HSE has proved to be a disaster. It needs to be replaced with community health partnerships that will be truly accountable, a development Sinn Féin sees as essential in a reformed health service.

Where is the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, in all of this? More importantly, where is she today? We have not heard a peep out of her about this situation. She treats the people with the same contempt as she treats this Dáil. This week's sitting, in which we cannot raise this matter other than under this Bill which was earlier demonstrated at the commencement of business at 2.30 p.m., is a complete farce. I have no doubt the Government's current cutbacks will only make it worse and create further tragedies or near tragedies. The embargo on public sector recruitment is putting ever greater pressure on staff, thus increasing the danger of misdiagnosis.

At the core of this is a culture of refusing to listen to patients. That is also at the core of another scandal, one which has received little attention but which I raised last week when I appealed to the Minister for Health and Children to intervene in the attempts by the HSE to evict elderly people from their home at Loughloe House in Athlone.

Last week, I pointed out two patients had died since the HSE's closure announcement of the home on 6 May. Since then, I have to report that another patient passed away in the early hours of yesterday morning in Mullingar hospital. Relatives and staff are in no doubt that the stress caused by pressure to move out of Loughloe House was the key factor in their untimely deaths. Two other residents had heart attacks and another man had a stroke.

Six people have now been hospitalised, three fatally, in one month. There should be an independent investigation into the methods used by the HSE to relocate residents. As I put on the record last week, some residents were threatened with the street if they talked to media or public representatives. Others threatened with the door if they refused to take another bed offered to them by the HSE.

I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, to communicate on my behalf, and that of a collective of concerned Deputies of all opinion including Government backbenchers, to the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, her need to directly intervene and stand down the HSE's disgraceful methods of relocating residents. As Minister for Health and Children she has a duty of care for all residents of Loughloe House and elsewhere. I urge lessons be learned from the Loughloe House tragedy to ensure the same mistakes are not repeated.

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