James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I wish the Minister a happy new year in her first Question Time of the new year - possibly her last if I hear correctly what is going on outside.

As I raised this issue with you this morning, a Cheann Comhairle, I will now read into the record of the Dáil the question I put and not the question that was issued by the General Office:

To ask the Minister for Health and Children in view of the number of patients waiting on trolleys in accident and emergency, which reached an unprecedented high of 569 in January 2011, the precautions being taken to protect patients from cross infection from swine flu and other hospital infections; the additional capacity put in place to deal with the winter increase in hospital admissions; the way she will defend the closure of beds when demand is high; and if she will make a statement on the matter.

While the Minister has given us her answer, I must point out that in January 2007 the average number of people lying on trolleys was 243. It increased to 286 in January 2008, 346 in January 2009 and 387 in January 2010, and so far this month the average has been 464. Whatever plans the Minister has been putting in place have clearly not worked. Given that we know this increase in demand occurs every year during the winter and we end up with this crisis, surely to God there ought to be a plan to deal with this problem, with an additional ward available in the hospitals most at risk. Why has the Minister not, as I have suggested before, put out to tender to nursing homes for additional beds with associated occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and speech and language therapy? That would help to move out of our hospitals 500 patients who have finished the acute phase of their treatment.

I also asked about swine flu and cross-infection. On Monday night I was stopped on the road by a taxi driver who told me his wife had been admitted to the Mater Hospital with emphysema and she now has swine flu. I spoke to a doctor at Beaumont Hospital who told me about a younger man with cancer on chemotherapy who was left beside a patient with swine flu, subsequently contracted it and became very unwell. These are real risks for people that are unnecessary if the situation were handled properly. What realistic plans is the Minister putting in place now? Why have the plans she put in place in the past not worked? The lack of junior hospital doctors is putting even more pressure on our hospitals in their ability to deal with the influx of patients into hospitals. How many junior hospital doctor vacancies now exist?

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