Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Recently the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, released figures showing that overcrowding levels for the first four months of this year were are their highest levels since records began, with 36,048 waiting on trolleys from the start of the year until the end of April. Last night in my own constituency, there were 26 patients on trolleys in Cork University Hospital and 16 in the Mercy University Hospital. Even well out from winter, the numbers on trolleys remain very high despite the best efforts of health care staff and overworked nurses and doctors. This is evidence of a system that is completely and utterly dysfunctional. Whatever action the Government has taken has failed to make a significant dent in the problem. The trolley crisis is a symptom of a health system in crisis, as is the shocking rise in public waiting lists for treatment. There is now a record of well in excess of 660,000 patients on waiting lists for some kind of hospital care. The €50 million sticking plaster that the Government is spending on initiatives to cut waiting lists is having no appreciable effect. In the days, weeks or months left to him in office, will the Taoiseach establish an emergency department task force on a permanent basis to deal with the crisis at hand? Will he also agree to increase the number of hospital beds, nursing home beds, home help hours and invest in community services? The under-resourcing of the latter services ultimately leads to more people ending up in hospital when they could and should be cared for in the community.

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