Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Galway University Hospital is at crisis point. This is a hospital that serves a core population of 800,000 people and six core counties. In addition, it serves a number of other counties, which means it serves a population of approximately 1 million people.

It is operating on code black alert, the highest emergency code, and at full capacity on an ongoing and prolonged basis. As a direct result, the obvious things happen. Elective surgeries have been cancelled. Large numbers of people have been left on trolleys, reaching a peak of 50 at Christmas. In addition and directly arising from that, there is an ongoing review of an operation performed in a ward. We are awaiting the review concerning the death on a trolley of somebody in their 80s. We are awaiting the conclusions of a report on spinal surgery, inappropriately carried out in some cases and causing premature deaths in two cases. We are still awaiting confirmation that all the recommendations of the Savita Halappanavar inquiry have been implemented.

In addition, very ill patients are walking out of casualty on a daily basis. There are people with mental health problems being shoved through casualty. Indeed, the lack of capacity in the hospital, which issue is not parochial or local because the hospital serves 1 million people, means it has been ranked number one on the risk register. Dr. Fergal Hickey in Sligo has said the abnormal has become the normal.

In addition, there is a report, independently commissioned by the Saolta group, on the accident and emergency department. The physical environment of the department is shocking and disturbing. It is unfit for purpose. A submission has been received from Saolta and the clinical director of the hospital stating the current ageing facilities in the hospital are not fit for purpose and do not provide an appropriate environment in which to safely manage the current and future care needs of the population of the region. I ask the Taoiseach not to stand up and give the answers I received from him and the Minister since I came here ten months ago. I do not want a list of the improvements he has planned. I want him to react to what I am being told by the clinical director and to what I learned from the external report, which states it is not just a matter of the accident and emergency unit because the hospital itself is not fit for purpose.

This is not a political agenda. The authorities want two things. They want immediate confirmation of investment in the accident and emergency unit to make it fit for purpose and, more important, they want confirmation of approval so they can proceed with examining priorities for a new hospital.

The system is failing. The system itself is ill, leading to people becoming ill and dying. I ask the Taoiseach to stand up and give a direct answer. This failure is as a direct result of the lack of investment by Governments driven by an ideology that public is bad and private is good.

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