Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will try, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I have timed my speech and it is slightly more than three minutes. There has been a great deal of discussion inside and outside this House about the urgent need for the accident and emergency departments in our hospitals to be improved. Hundreds of patients are having to spend nights on trolleys in unacceptable conditions. I would like to highlight the particular problems at University Hospital Galway, which is one of the biggest hospitals in the country. I ask the Government to implement a solution that could be introduced in the short term to resolve the problems at the hospital, at least in part. The accident and emergency department at the hospital is one of the two busiest in the country, with well over 60,000 people attending it every year. Management and staff are doing their best to cope with working conditions that are impossible at times. Patients are being shoehorned into every nook and cranny as they await treatment. Those who have to be examined in corridors without privacy are stripped of their dignity.

I do not need to remind the Taoiseach of the words he used in this House this time last year after a visit to University Hospital Galway. He said that "the emergency department at University College Galway is not fit for purpose" and described it as "one of the most inadequate facilities in the country". Every day of the week, this department is desperately trying to cope with patient numbers that are two or two and a half times in excess of the numbers for which it was built to cater. The logjam in the accident and emergency department is having a knock-on effect on other aspects of the hospital's operations. Planned surgeries for almost 5,000 patients at University Hospital Galway were cancelled in the first nine months of this year. This has been blamed in part on overcrowding in the accident and emergency department, which has been causing elective surgeries to be postponed. There are plans in the pipeline for the construction of a new accident and emergency unit. The rate of progress in this regard makes me fear that another 500,000 people or more will have to endure the trauma of the current facility before the new unit actually opens.

There is another option that would considerably ease the pressure on the current accident and emergency department. Its attraction is that it could be implemented in a relatively short period of time and at a relatively low cost. A minor injuries unit at Merlin Park University Hospital could handle a large proportion of the people who currently present at the accident and emergency unit at University Hospital Galway. A similar service is operating at 11 locations around the country. The unit at Roscommon County Hospital is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and handles cases like cuts, bruises, burns, sprains, broken legs and broken arms. Just one in four of those who attend the accident and emergency department at University Hospital Galway end up being admitted to the hospital. This suggests that a huge number of people could be treated at a minor injuries unit at Merlin Park University Hospital. Will the Taoiseach agree to provide such a unit as a matter of urgency, before another generation of people from Galway and adjoining counties endures the limitations of a facility that does not belong in modern Ireland? Will he confirm a report in last week's Connacht Tribune, which quoted Government sources as saying that the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, "will announce the go-ahead for a new Emergency Department" when he visits the hospital in December? If this report is accurate, how long will it be before the new accident and emergency department is open?

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