Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The INMO has pointed out that 842 patients spent time on trolleys in the emergency department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda in September 2011 compared to 331 in the comparable month of the previous year, an increase of 154%. The INMO states that this situation will deteriorate even further in the coming months as the winter period is traditionally worse in emergency departments nationwide.

Pressure on the Lourdes and on Cavan General Hospital have been greatly increased by the so-called hospital reconfiguration process in the north east - the removal of services and downgrading of other services in these hospitals. This downgrading process totally contradicts the Minister's supposed strategy of giving smaller hospitals and primary care a greater role. The hours of the minor injury unit at Monaghan General Hospital are being cut. The rapid response vehicle has been withdrawn from the ambulance service covering County Monaghan and north Louth. Services have been taken away from the Louth County Hospital in Dundalk and from Our Lady's Hospital in Navan. Clearly, these services must be restored. Nothing less is acceptable.

We had our attention drawn recently to the growing chaos in the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick where nurses were driven to industrial action, not in pursuit of better pay and conditions for themselves but for the safety of patients. The downgrading of smaller hospitals at Ennis and Nenagh have contributed to that pressure in Limerick.

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