Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact the Minister will look into the issue of ambulances being called when they know they will not get there, which is happening all over the place. Crews from Castlebar and Ballina have been sent to Roscommon and to Galway and a crew that is meant to go to Mulranny on a daily basis often does not get there. They might be sent a small bit down the road but are then called back to man a base in Castlebar or Ballina because a crew from one of those places has been called out to a wild goose chase somewhere else. The staff do not have any choice but to do this.

The recruitment of nurses is a key issue to ease congestion in our emergency departments. The Minister will be well aware of the difficulties in attracting nurses back and we all know people working in other jurisdictions where they are treated far better and have a smaller workload. We need to do an awful lot more in terms of working conditions to attract highly skilled and qualified people back.

I welcome the reduction in trolley numbers at Mayo University Hospital this year as compared with last year. I have raised the movement of patients to other wards with the Minister in the past but I do not know if he has looked into it. They are often moved to the medical assessment and day service units in the hospital to remove them from the view of those who conduct the trolley watch. Staff tell me that there is pressure on hospital management to ensure patients are not counted on trolleys so that the numbers can be made public. They are human beings and it puts pressure on them and this incentivises some managers to do things which massage the figures, creating an inaccurate reflection of what is happening on the ground. The Minister needs to look behind the figures and talk to staff in the hospitals.

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