Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. No one can deny we have a crisis in emergency departments throughout the State. The facts are there. While we have a crisis throughout the State, the Portlaoise emergency department is fighting for its very survival. A report was commissioned under the stewardship of Dr. Susan O'Reilly and we were supposed to have its conclusion and outcome in September. However, we now find it is delayed and, two months on, we still do not have it. I am raising the question of whether it is being delayed until after the general election. I hope not because the people of Laois and beyond want to know what is happening to their emergency department.

Portlaoise is one of the busiest emergency departments outside of Dublin. An average of 40,000 patients go through that unit. The number of patients on trolleys has increased by 60% on last year. They are the facts and the figures are there to show that. There are a number of problems, the main one being that there is only one temporary consultant and some out-of-hours cover by a visiting consultant. There is no emergency department on call outside of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. That is not acceptable and we know the damage it is causing to the viability of the unit. We also have a shortage of nursing staff in the unit, which needs to be improved. There are only 39 medical beds in Portlaoise hospital and I am told by staff in the hospital that this is causing a bottleneck in the emergency department because beds are not available to move the patients off trolleys, through the emergency department and into the medical wards. There are only 39 beds and ten more are needed. Other hospitals are having difficulties but they have more staff available per patient. The budget in Portlaoise at one stage was in the region of €52 million per annum. At the moment it is in the region of €47 million. That is a real problem because it costs money to employ nurses, consultants and other staff. The hospital needs to be funded as a busy regional hospital, not just as a small local hospital.

Obviously we want emergency departments improved throughout the State and we have a crisis. We need the report into the situation of the emergency department in Portlaoise to be published. We were supposed to have it in September. Will the Minister bring that forward to provide the 24-7 on-call consultant coverage we need in the hospital and to provide the nurses who are needed? About eight extra beds are needed in the medical wards. Those extra beds would transform things in Portlaoise. Will the Minister for Health provide those? The INMO members are not threatening to go on strike for their own gain. They stated very clearly that they are going to do so because they are concerned about emergency departments and the risks to patients. They want to ensure the health, safety and well-being of their staff on the front line. That is what they said. We must listen to these people who are at the coalface. We must provide the supports, the finance and the resources to staff these emergency departments properly. Portlaoise urgently needs the three actions I outlined.

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