James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I could not agree more with the Deputy. I do not believe HIQA reports should be used to close smaller hospitals. If they highlight problems, these should be addressed as far as possible.

The Deputy mentioned Roscommon County Hospital, which will be discussed later in another question. Roscommon hospital is faced with a number of difficulties at the moment. One is a shortage of non-consultant hospital doctors, and another is HIQA patient safety concerns, which arise because of the low volume of patients going through the emergency department - 30 people a day. There is also a difficulty in providing supervised training for doctors, which means these posts are unpopular. We are seeking to address this; I will cover it in a later question. However, the biggest problem facing the hospital is safety.

Let us be absolutely honest about what is currently available in Roscommon hospital. We have an unsafe service. The obvious question is why it is unsafe. I say it is unsafe because it deals with undifferentiated multiple trauma cases, undifferentiated medical cases, including heart attacks and strokes, and undifferentiated surgical problems. If people are brought there by ambulance, they have a right to expect that the skills are available to deal with their problems. However, if a person is suffering from multiple trauma, broken bones and blood vessel damage, there is no orthopaedic surgeon and no vascular surgeon. If a person has had a heart attack, there are excellent physicians, but there is no facility to insert a stent, if that is what is required.

I am happy to come back to the issue of Roscommon hospital in another question. However, I say this to the Deputy. The HIQA reports, particularly the Mallow report, are clear. The Deputy's question is a bit confused, if I might point that out. He refers to a report received in February 2011, but no such report was received. The Mallow report, which I have in front of me, is from April 2011.

See this speech in context