Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have read the summary of the HIQA report and I agree with the Deputy that some of the findings regarding South Tipperary General Hospital are extremely disturbing. I noted, however, that when the HIQA inspectors returned six weeks later they had found considerable improvement in some of the issues that had been identified when they first visited on an emergency basis. The Deputy is right, however, that there are serious infrastructure and capacity issues regarding demand at South Tipperary General Hospital. The important point is that we are entering a new era now of further investment in the health service, as evidenced by the extra €500 million that has been allocated to the Department of Health and to the Minister, Deputy Harris. There are improvements overall in the trolley situation but still a lot of work to be done. There is clearly more investment in the area of general practitioners and investment in primary care and it is important that this continues. It will deal to some degree with the infrastructural issues. New initiatives and new funding have gone into the fair deal scheme, which has meant that patients now only have to wait a very short period of two to four weeks for a bed, reduced from 14 weeks just over a year ago.

Improvements are therefore being made, but the Minister has indicated that he intends to address the general issues that the Deputy raises about infrastructure. Clearly, however, there are also management and accountability issues, as evidenced by the HIQA report, that need to be taken up at a local level. I note, for example, that some of the issues that were identified concerned the risks relating to infection prevention and hygiene, with very poor cleansing of equipment around some patient areas and stained, dusty and rusty rubbish bins in some of the surgical wards, and the paediatric ward was not clean. Some of these issues can be dealt with via proper management and accountability from hospital groups. The Deputy makes the point about investment and infrastructure in the hospital. The Minister has said he plans to focus on the issue of capital investment in hospitals that need infrastructural development and he now has the resources to begin to do that. There will be a capital review, as the Deputy knows, in the near future, and the issues he raises can be considered then.

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