Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

There is a huge bed capacity deficiency at South Tipperary General Hospital. Put very simply, there are not enough beds to cater for the demand for services at the hospital. This has been accepted in recent years by local hospital management, HSE regional management and the management of the south-south west hospital group of which South Tipperary General Hospital is part. The preferred option for a medium-term solution to this bed deficit is a 40-bed modular or hotel-type accommodation. In October of last year the senior Minister, Deputy Simon Harris visited the hospital and described the conditions there as utterly unacceptable. He further said that solutions must be found. He promised that a decision would be made before the end of the year. We are now six months into the following year and we still have no decision on this very urgent and immediate problem.

As the Minister of State knows well, the hospital is a progressive hospital, forward looking and very efficient. Despite the best efforts of staff, there is horrendous chaos almost on a daily basis, with significant numbers of trolleys on the corridors. The month of May saw a huge number of trolleys and we have had as many as 31 trolleys in the corridors in the current month of June. If this is the case in May and June, what will the situation be like in the coming autumn and winter?

Patients on trolleys have no dignity or privacy and lack access to adequate bathroom and washing facilities. Staff are run off their feet and are struggling to provide a safe service in a highly pressurised atmosphere. South Tipperary General Hospital has been effectively in crisis for more than five years. It has experienced savage budget cuts to funding and staffing while, at the same time, it has increased hospital activity at emergency department, outpatient and inpatient levels. The hospital is bursting at the seams, operating at 130% capacity. The medical department is at the even higher rate of 150% capacity. I remind the Minister of State that full occupancy is defined as 85%. As a priority, the hospital needs 40 additional beds immediately. I ask that the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, fulfil the promise he made when he visited the hospital nine months ago, to approve and fund a 40-bed inpatient extension to ensure the hospital can deal reasonably and well with its patients on a daily basis.

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