Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to concentrate on the issue of people on trolleys. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, has revealed that between January and April, there were 35,135 occurrences of people on trolleys, an increase of 26% on the same period last year. It is the worst figure since the INMO started to keep these records. We could deal with the huge scandals, patient safety issues and the lack of resources but I want to deal with an issue that affects the "small" people. On 18 May, around the time the Taoiseach's sub-committee was meeting, there were 65 patients in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital who were deemed to be ready for discharge but they could not be discharged. There are 310 beds in the hospital, so 65 of those beds could not be used by the people requiring procedures and who ended up on trolleys or having surgery put off.

The trauma for people on trolleys is that they are sick and many are elderly etc. How could we expect anything different if the Government cuts home help services, care in the community, close public nursing beds and strip away protections for people in their family home? They will end up in hospital. Today, there are 37 people on trolleys in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, which is the second-highest number in the State. That is a direct result of Government policy. It has closed 2,000 beds. This Government and its predecessor stripped services from the Louth county hospital at Dundalk.

Yes, the modular unit at Our Lady of Lourdes in Dundalk is welcome. I lobbied the last Minister as well as the Taoiseach for it as, I am sure, did other representatives. My point is that it is a huge injustice that, on the one hand, people are on trolleys and, on the other, that as many as 65 people were told they could be discharged but they had nowhere to go. That is a mark of the Government's poor stewardship of health.

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