Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to raise this very important issue. It is the most important issue in Laois the and surrounding counties. It is the issue of the hospital services. There has been a threat hanging over key services at Midlands Regional Hospital Portlaoise for years. We have had leak after leak. One leak came out in early summer 2015 that indicated that the emergency services were to be removed. The Department of Health and the HSE then commissioned a report in response to the campaigning of local people under the tutelage of Dr. Susan O'Reilly. That report was to be published in September 2015. We are now in the month of November in the year of our Lord 2016 and heading for Christmas, yet we still have not seen that report.

In the interim, there have been more leaks and spin around the issue. One leak was regarding a recommendation that the emergency services be removed. It is time for the HSE, the Department and the Government to tell us what is planned for Portlaoise hospital. The emergency department is one of the busiest outside Dublin, busier than Mullingar and Tullamore. The absence of full consultant cover is often cited as a reason to downgrade the unit. The strategy of the Department and the HSE seems to be to keep the unit under constant threat of closure and consultants will not apply for the job as long as that is the case. In that way, the Department and the HSE get the outcome they want.

Resources are the issue in Portlaoise. That has always and ever been the case. A positive story from the point of view of the Government, the Department and the HSE has shown this in the last year. When the staff allocation was granted for the maternity unit, there were improvements. There has been a huge increase in the number of staff. They were operating with little over half the staff that was needed. We have seen the improvements in outcomes at the maternity unit. It can be held up as a good example. There were deficiencies there and the staff was operating under huge pressure. That has been improved. In a reply to a question of mine from 18 October, the Minister, Deputy Harris, acknowledged that there are far better outcomes now.

It is a busy but excellent service.

There is also a busy paediatric unit at the hospital. If any of the key services in Portlaoise is closed, there is nowhere to send people. I do not need to tell the Minister of State, Deputy Corcoran Kennedy, that one cannot send accident and emergency patients or those requiring paediatric services to Tullamore. The maternity services for Offaly are based in Portlaoise. Has the Minister read the important set of proposals issued in the summer by GPs and senior medical and clinical staff at Portlaoise hospital? These highlight the interdependent nature of the main services at the hospital in Portlaoise and the fact that if the emergency department were removed, other services would go with it because they are dependent on having a functioning emergency department. I refer to maternity and paediatric services in particular and the concerned professionals who manage, operate, staff and look after primary care and hospital care services in the midlands. They acknowledge the benefits of networking with the larger Dublin hospitals. Staffing is one of the issues affecting the maternity unit. The fact that it is now networking with the Coombe hospital is another benefit. The staff say that approach should be used as a template for the other services at the hospital.

There are people in the Gallery from County Laois. Jackie Cuddihy is one of them. As she has said publicly, she would not be here today but for the fact that we have an accident and emergency unit at Portlaoise hospital. That is an indication of the importance of the service.

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