Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of the recent HIQA report into the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise. I am very pleased to meet the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, here. I wish him well in his Department and I know his heart is in the right place when it comes to health and disability.

I am saying clearly on the record of the House that I need to speak to the Minister, Deputy Harris, directly on this issue. Any plans by the Department of Health will go nowhere until such time as we have proper consultation with the Minister on the matter. The recent HIQA report contained nothing that was a surprise to me. Essentially, the report says that progress is being made in the maternity unit at Portlaoise hospital but that investment is required in the medical and intensive care unit in order to bring them up to standard. This has been known for quite some time but the HSE has not yet taken action. It should get a move on and do so immediately.

The main issue highlighted in the HIQA report relates to the difficulties in the accident and emergency department. The problem is that there are a large number of patients - over 36,000 - attending the emergency department in Portlaoise each year. There is not the appropriate number of consultant staff to deal with these patients and neither is there a named emergency consultant available on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The answer is very simple. We have to take the necessary steps to ensure that we have enough consultants and medical and nursing staff available in the emergency department at Portlaoise hospital to deal with the patients who arrive there. Remarkably, the HSE's response to this problem is to consider cutting the number of hours the emergency department is open, thereby reducing the numbers attending to match the number of staff it wants to employ. This attitude by the HSE is totally wrong and if it represents the ethos of the HSE at national level, it has to be fundamentally changed.

The real issue is that the statement by the HSE regional manager on cutting the hours of the emergency department has put a cloud over the future of the hospital. The knock-on effect, as highlighted in the HIQA report, is that the HSE is finding it difficult to recruit senior medical staff to Portlaoise hospital.

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