Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

In supporting tonight's motion I reiterate the importance of securing funding for essential hospital services across this island. Our health system is failing people across this State and nowhere is this more clearly recognised than in my constituency of Dublin South-West. Tallaght hospital, despite the best efforts of its hard-pressed staff, exemplifies much of what is wrong with the health care system. A shortage of key personnel such as radiologists, physiotherapists, dermatologists and even clerical workers, reflects the difficulties within the hospital. The way a nation treats its most vulnerable and weakest citizens reflects how a society functions.

Sinn Féin calls on the Government to stand by its pre-election commitments and to respond to the worsening crisis which is denying access to the most basic care. The failure to provide funding to ensure sustainability and development of essential services has had a profound impact on the lives of people who are dependent on public health services when sick or injured. Tallaght hospital has the busiest accident and emergency department in the country and in 2010, 93,000 people were treated there yet it remains chronically under-funded since its opening. In a recent newspaper article, a patient describes its corridors as being a breeding ground for infectious bacteria, a view substantiated recently by the Dublin County Coroner, Dr. Kieran Geraghty, who described the hospital as a very dangerous place. His comments were made after a local man, Thomas Walsh, died after being admitted to Tallaght hospital with a severe ankle pain. He had been left in a so-called virtual ward, a euphemism for abandoning sick patients in hospital corridors while awaiting a bed in a ward. The sheer obscenity of having dozens of sick patients lying on trolleys with no privacy, a lack of basic hygiene facilities and no real health supports, brings into sharp focus the cuts in the health service. I was present in the hospital one night when more than 50 patients were lying in rows of trolleys. A family grieved around the bedside of their elderly mother - no dignity for the dying and no dignity for their families.

I welcome the fact that HIQA, the Health Information and Quality Authority, has published the terms of reference for a statutory inquiry into the safety and governance of care at Tallaght's accident and emergency department. I understand that under the eight terms of reference, the inquiry will assess the quality, safety, governance and accountability of services provided to patients who attend the accident and emergency department. It will also examine whether the board of the hospital has been effective in managing risks to patients. The inquiry must begin immediately and the focus must be on implementing radical improvements in the hospital.

The Minister might also look at the lack of after-hours GP services in Tallaght and its impact on the accident and emergency department. He might also look at an area such as Fettercairn in Tallaght, with a population of 7,000 people but with no general practitioner based in that area. My colleague, Deputy McDonald, cited the recent announcement about the new national children's hospital. There will be no celebration in my area. Sinn Féin was the first party to highlight the difficulties its siting creates for families or individuals trying to cross to the Mater site. We outlined the length of travel time on public transport.

I ask the Minister to also look at the policy on the rolling out of children's hospital services, the paediatric services, in this city. There will be no overnight beds for sick children on the south side of Dublin. He needs to look radically and quickly at this difficulty which families will face.

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