John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In light of the statistics the Minister of State put before us, which are designed to baffle and mislead, I will read a message from Margaret, who attended St. Luke’s General Hospital. She stated:

I had a reason to spend a good part of yesterday [Monday, 9 November] in St Luke’s hospital in Kilkenny. There were lines and lines of people, all in need of care and attention queueing at the medical assessment unit. People were waiting to be seen. Some were awaiting tests, others results. Some were waiting for beds and a decision to be made in that regard. Patients were waiting on chairs and trolleys and in wheelchairs. People accompanying them stood for hours and, eventually, sat on the floor. There were so many people that the staff literally did not have room to turn. They continually had to excuse themselves just to work. Under these appalling conditions, staff heroically and unselfishly ploughed on and helped and cared for people professionally with empathy and kindness. Thanks to all the staff.

She thanked the staff and criticised successive Governments for not investing fully. This is in a hospital which Deputy Eamon Ó Cuív said earlier was the lead hospital in terms of development and the delivery of services in the country. This is happening in our hospital while yards away from where people are being admitted, there is a brand new unit that was opened and closed and that could ease the pressure. However, staff are not being provided. The nurses and front-line staff are a BAND-AID in the system, holding it together.

Meanwhile, while the unit lies empty and is not being used for the purpose for which it was built, the HSE has decided to run down the services at Kilcreene Orthopaedic Hospital and look to an overcrowded campus in University Hospital Waterford. The treatment of patients is chaotic and no respect is being shown for the dignity of the patients by the system which the Minister of State represents, the HSE and the Department of Health. Shame on them for putting patients and front-line staff in this predicament. It is about management and using the resources the Government has. In St. Luke’s, the Government is doing neither. It is ignoring the issue regarding Kilcreene hospital.

Another lady contacted me today and said her elderly parent was in bed and asked for an extra sheet and blanket. The nurse leaned in and quietly and politely told her that her best bet was Dunnes Stores. What kind of system is the Government running? There is a shortage of bed clothes. There is a new arrangement for hospital stores and these essential items cannot be accessed easily. There is a shortage of staff. Stroke victims, the elderly and those who are in deep shock who attend accident and emergency services are being left without the care and attention they deserve and require. Staff members complained to management long before this happened, but were ignored and now there is now chaos. How can any management team in any hospital in the country stand over it?

The Minister of State remarked on funding to the hospitals. She stands over the HSE that must now pay compensation of €9 million to suppliers because it broke the rules and did not meet the criteria. She stands over a HSE that cannot collect its debt from the private health insurers, not because the private health insurers will not pay, but because the HSE consultants will not sign off on it. How many hospital beds would be off the corridors and in the wards, how many sheets, blankets and pillows could the Minister of State provide for a hard-pressed service, if the management, who are well paid, would collect the money and reinvest it in front-line services? We should examine what is happening in the UK health service, which is returning to the cottage hospitals which are easily managed, where there is no MRSA or infections, and where those who are elderly and in dire need of the service get it when they want it. Shame on the Government and the House that the elderly and sick are left as they are in our hospitals throughout the country.

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