Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

South Tipperary General Hospital is about to enter its 19th month of being forced to operate under the HSE's full capacity protocol. According to Paud O'Regan, a consultant who has been working at the hospital for a long time, the 79-bed medical department has been working at 150% capacity for a dangerously long period. Given that the new Taoiseach was Minister for Health, visited the hospital at the time and introduced the full capacity protocol, he will be aware that it was issued in spite of overwhelming objections from the INMO and all nurse and other trade union representative organisations. It results in the placing of additional patients in inappropriate areas of hospitals, leading to overcrowding on wards, not just emergency departments. It creates overcrowding problems in two areas of the hospital, instead of one. Organisations such as the INMO and emergency medicine practitioners regularly damn the protocol because, in their view, the care of all patients is compromised by this practice which creates a loss of dignity for patients and an increased risk of cross-infection. There are 19 patients on trolleys today in South Tipperary General Hospital, STGH, in this fine high summer weather.

The longest day of the year was only yesterday.

With regard to providing additional support to STGH in the short term, I was advised by the Minister for Health that the HSE is working towards additional surge capacity - these are wonderful words - through the fit-out of additional space on the first floor of the hospital to alleviate pressure on the accident and emergency department under the national framework for alternative accommodation on hospital sites. All we get is words, analogies and acronyms. This additional capacity was expected to be available from May and could be used to accommodate up to 11 trolley bays on a corridor. Yesterday, the Minister told me that he has not even begun recruiting to staff this accommodation.

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