Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and the Minister of State for taking this very important matter, which concerns a six month old baby born under an emergency section procedure. This resulted in trauma for the family, the grandparents and the parents. Like myself, the Minister of State is a grandparent and the concerns one has in such cases cannot be overstressed. The child must have a number of operations. The family lives in Kilkenny, which is two hours away from Our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin. Arrangements were made for the operation to take place on 9 February.

The procedures in place for such operations meant that the family had to leave home at 7 a.m. and the six month old child had to fast from 3.30 a.m. The family arrived in the hospital and met the medical operation team. Suddenly, at noon, it became obvious that there was a problem with the availability of a surgical bed for this case. The family was informed that there was no bed available and the two procedures had to be cancelled. The family lays no blame on the medical team and stresses the help and guidance the medical team provided and the effort it made to facilitate the family.

Only one of the procedures will take place on Thursday because of the unavailability of one of the consultants. This leads to an added cost to the HSE. In the first place, there were to be two operations but now there will be one on Thursday and we do not know when the second will take place. One can see trauma for this young couple with one other child, for whom they must care as well as the child with health difficulties. Cathal needs attention but the beds are not available. Could beds have been made available in an emergency situation? Surely we cannot have a child fasting from 3.30 a.m. only for the family to be told at noon that the bed was unavailable. It was nearly 1 p.m before the child was fed. Surely we have a sense of responsibility that matters such as this cannot happen in the future.

I ask the Minister of State to provide a guarantee to the family that, on the next occasion they leave Kilkenny to come to Crumlin, beds and facilities will be available and the two operations can take place to allow the child the comforts of life and to allow the family to know that every effort has been made to ensure the child progresses.

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