Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I hope the Minister will address the matter. The money was promised as part of the talks for the programme for Government. I look forward to the roll-out of this. Nobody will condone or accept bad practices and unclean places, especially in a hospital. HIQA has accused South Tipperary General Hospital of putting patients at risk because of unacceptable practices such as lack of access to oxygen, lack of space - which I see any time I am there, and I am called in there regularly - trolley overcrowding and similar issues. There is no physical space. The staff are at their wits' end and the nurses are under enormous pressure. They are no longer in the reception area because they have been moved into wards, of which there are fewer and fewer. The hospital only has a certain number of beds. It is an old hospital and has done Trojan work. We need infrastructural investment and we need it now, and we need support for the management and staff there. As I said, nobody will condone any poor trolley practices. Sick patients cannot be nursed on long corridors out into the foyer and such places, with no dignity and no privacy. I see this happening every week..

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