Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I thank my colleague, Deputy Reilly, for bringing forward this important motion. He and many of my colleagues have dealt with most of the individual sections of the motion, so I propose to focus mainly on the issue of people's trust in the Health Service Executive having been shattered.

The motion deals in the main with the lack of treatment or mistreatment of women in maternity services, especially at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. I, as one Oireachtas Member in an all-party group representing the area served by that hospital, have had to deal with hundreds of cases regarding mistreatment or, more accurately, abuse. The Minister, Deputy Harney, brought forward a scheme to provide some compensation for the group but, unfortunately, on a technicality, some people have fallen outside that benefit. Although the Minister agreed this was unfair and undertook to address the matter, nothing has happened to date. We in County Monaghan were told that our maternity unit must be closed because there were insufficient numbers being dealt with to maintain the proper expertise necessary to ensure a safe service. When one compares the record of Monaghan hospital with the alternatives to which women are now resigned, there is no comparison.

The Minister and the HSE gave us further assurance that no services would be removed from Monaghan hospital until as good or better were made available elsewhere, but this promise has been ignored. Our trust in the HSE is shattered. Only last Monday Deputy Reilly and others were advised that everything in the surgical section of Cavan hospital was perfect, that very few beds were needed for surgery in the hospital and that one of the surgical wards had been switched over to medical services. People have lost faith in the surgery service and are going elsewhere, to Dublin, Northern Ireland or to the excellent former surgeons of the Cavan-Monaghan Hospital Group who are now working in private clinics in Galway. It is accepted by the HSE that there are problems in Cavan and even more acutely in the orthopaedic section of the hospital in Drogheda, yet it has gone ahead and closed down the excellent acute services that were provided in the Louth hospital. Clearly the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill is more important to this Government than the safety of our sick, disabled and elderly.

Another service the HSE has curtailed is day care provision for the elderly. For instance, two days of day care services per week have been closed down at St. Mary's Hospital, Castleblayney, affecting 131 patients. This unit was provided in difficult financial times by the then Minister for Health, Deputy Noonan, with two wards that had been closed for years being reopened as a special care unit for those with Alzheimer's disease. The day care ward is now being restricted. Clearly it is more important for the HSE to maintain its 700 or more grade eight administrators, in respect of whom Professor Drumm acknowledged he was unsure of some of their functions, than to maintain services for the disabled and elderly. While there is much talk about the greater numbers of patients being assisted through the home help and home carer schemes, there is no acknowledgement of the fact that the hours are severely restricted, with some patients down to half an hour per day or one and a half hours per week.

What is required is an independent body to oversee patient safety. Patient Focus did a great job for the women of Drogheda and something similar is required on a nationwide basis. I understand the Minister, Deputy Harney, made an apology in the Chamber yesterday. It is not enough. Her record in the health service can easily be challenged and she should consider her position.

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