Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this very important matter for answer by the Minister of State, Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy. I am raising it so there can be no doubt that the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Simon Harris, are entirely aware of the very acute overcrowding in Letterkenny University Hospital and to allow the Minister of State the opportunity to explain the reasons for this unacceptable overcrowding uncovered by the investigations in the Department of Health. Most crucially, what is the Government doing to ensure the issues are addressed and to ensure this is not something we continue to see over the coming weeks and months as we go into the winter?

Yesterday, Letterkenny University Hospital had the joint highest number of people in the country, alongside Cork University Hospital, on trolleys in A&E and waiting for admission. That was a record number in the experience of Letterkenny but it comes on the back of similar experiences over the last number of days and weeks where the maximum capacity protocol has been initiated in the hospital. Each day for the past couple of weeks, with very few exceptions, the A&E has been overcrowded and there have not been beds available in the hospital to take in new inpatients. I hope the Minister is able to give an explanation of the dynamic of the problem and what the Government proposes to do about it. It is not a result of significant respiratory illness, which is very often an issue at particular times in winter and leads to particular pinch points in hospitals. That is not part of the dynamic here. We are only at the start of winter and there is no identifiable cause, for example a particular illnesses causing a spike. It comes back to something which is much more structural about the management of our hospitals and our health service in Letterkenny and other hospitals across the country. This is an ongoing issue. Families of patients have been ringing me over the last number of weeks looking to get their family member moved from Letterkenny hospital either to a hospital in Galway, where they need to go for specialist treatment, or for an operation in a hospital in Dublin, one of the acute hospitals or one of the children's hospitals. They cannot get away because there are problems in those hospitals and they are then blocking beds in Letterkenny. The problem is we are seeing a domino effect where one issue in the health service has a knock-on effect on a number of patients right down along the track. For example, if a person in Galway cannot get in to have an operation, they are blocking a bed that somebody in Letterkenny wants to take up.

They, then, are blocking a bed in the main hospital in Letterkenny from someone who cannot get out of the accident and emergency department. Then, as a result of maximum capacity protocols being launched, inpatient and day cases are being delayed. In turn, this means those patients are being inconvenienced and not getting the treatment they need.

I hope there is clarity from the Government today in respect of exactly what the structural management issues are in the health service that are causing this capacity shortage and lack of beds. If the Government cannot clarify what exactly is at issue, then there is not much hope that the problems can be addressed. I hope the Minister of State can at least do that much and then outline what action the Government will take to ensure that the resources and assistance are put in place to address the problem in Letterkenny so that we do not see it continue on an ongoing basis over the coming weeks.

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