Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Many of this Government's policies on health are based on crossed fingers and a wing and a prayer because as we start into February 2016 we know full well that the acute hospital system is already underfunded. It will not have the capacity to deal with what presents, either through the emergency department or in the area of elective surgery, and that is already happening. There were cancellations of scheduled care on a continual basis during January to deal with hospital overcrowding. The Minister said, and this was an extraordinary statement, that the cancellation of elective surgeries showed that the protocols were working to deal with overcrowding in our emergency departments. Clearly, the difficulty is that we cannot consistently cancel elective surgeries to deal with the issue. We simply do not have the required capacity in the acute hospital setting, primarily in our emergency departments. Today there were 51 people on trolleys in St. Vincent's Hospital and 37 in Cork University Hospital, CUH, and throughout the country, 456 people were on trolleys either in the emergency department or on wards. Clearly, something must be done and the shortfall in hospital funding is not a good start for 2016.

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