Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this critical issue today. Last week, 601 people lay on hospital trolleys. That is a new record.

2 o’clock

I know the Minister of State's colleague - the senior Minister - does not do constituency tours. Something tells me that will change in the future. He was invited to visit the regional hospital in Mullingar last week by a local Fine Gael councillor. He did not accept the invitation. I would like to share my experience of what I witnessed after I was invited to visit the hospital by the relatives of patients and by staff in the hospital. I witnessed total pandemonium. It was appalling. Every bed was full. Trolleys occupied by elderly men and women congested the corridors. The relatives of many patients stood beside them and held their hands to comfort them because they had not seen anybody for a number of hours. Many patients had no curtains, no privacy and no dignity. The doctors and nurses who were scurrying around were doing their damnedest to provide a level of care. Quite simply, an insufficient number of staff was available to deal with the quantity of patients who presented themselves to the accident and emergency department. Phones were ringing. The waiting room was full. Children were crying.

We expect people who need treatment to come to accident and emergency departments. They expect to receive comfort and a level of service. I witnessed something that was more akin to a field hospital in a war zone. I do not mean any disrespect to the staff who are doing their damnedest when I say that. The Minister of State and her colleagues are presiding over this health service. They have been presiding over it for the past four years. These problems are not exclusive to Mullingar. One of the nurses who attended yesterday's small protest said that it is completely unacceptable for an elderly patient to lie on a trolley for days with no access to toilet or washing facilities, having been assessed in an area where a curtain was not available to cover him or her. The Irish Medical Organisation has said that elderly patients who are sick and vulnerable are now afraid to turn up at accident and emergency departments. This is appalling. It is a sorry indictment of the record of the Minister of State and her party in government.

The Minister, Deputy Varadkar, spoke yesterday about what happened 14 years ago. His comments offered little comfort to the families of patients who are lying on hospital trolleys, to the patients themselves or to those who have been on waiting lists for many years. The elective surgery waiting list increased by 20% last year. The number of people who have been waiting for more than a year for an outpatient appointment increased by 385%. I know an elderly man - he is 80 years of age - who has had to give up driving because his cataract is so bad. He has been waiting for over two years for that cataract to be removed. This has eradicated his independence. He has been left alone in rural Ireland. I am talking about what is happening now, rather than what happened 14 years ago. The Minister for Health failed to acknowledge in his contribution yesterday that the first accident and emergency consultants to be appointed outside of Dublin were appointed by Deputy Micheál Martin. He did not mention that the number of patients treated by the HSE increased by 50% between 2000 and 2010.

It amazes me to hear officials and Ministers justifying this problem by saying it is seasonal. They say it is happening because it is winter. One would think winter comes once in a lifetime. Winter comes every 12 months. We are back discussing the same issue every winter. The Minister and the Department are failing to prepare. Last year, my colleague, Deputy Kelleher, repeatedly warned that the decisions being taken by this Government would have consequences. He said the decision to reduce fair deal funding would have consequences. While I acknowledge that an additional €25 million is being provided this year, it is a long way short of the €101 million required by the HSE. Nine nursing home beds are lying idle in a nursing home in Mullingar, which is in my constituency, because the fair deal funding has yet to be improved.

I would like to inform Deputy Bannon, who claimed that just three people are lying on hospital trolleys at the regional hospital in Mullingar, that 33 people were lying on hospital trolleys when I visited that hospital last week. The number of patients being treated at the hospital has increased dramatically in recent years, following the downgrading of the hospitals in Navan and Roscommon. We used to hear the mantra that the money would follow the patient. I acknowledge that the management and staff of the hospital are working very hard to provide a level of care there. Deputy Lawlor spoke about doing the rounds more than once a day. That is all very well if there is somewhere to discharge the patient to. Given that the fair deal scheme is not working, people are being left bed-blocking. It is a bad term to use because the people in question have not chosen to be left bed-blocking. They cannot leave the hospital because they have nowhere to go.

I know of a person with a disability who was medically discharged on 30 December last, but the disability services have nowhere for her to go. The bed capacity at the regional hospital in Mullingar has decreased by 20 since 2010. Deputy Bannon was right when he said there is room at St. Joseph's in Longford and St. Mary's in Mullingar. Nobody is making the funding available, however. Sixty fewer front-line staff have been working at the regional hospital in Mullingar since the introduction of the moratorium. Is it any wonder that the level of absenteeism is so high, given that the people who are working at the hospital at the moment are being put to the pin of their collars to try to provide a level of service over which they can stand?

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