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

South Tipperary General Hospital is a progressive, forward-looking and efficient hospital, but it has a major problem with a lack of bed capacity. Simply put, there are not enough beds to cope with the number of admissions. That this is a problem has been accepted by hospital management, the regional HSE management and the South/South West hospital group management.

The figures are shocking. In 2011, there were 750 patients on trolleys in the hospital. In 2016, there was a sixfold increase to 4,419. Today, at the height of the summer, there are 22 patients on trolleys in the hospital's corridors. If that is the case today, what in God's name will it be like in the winter and autumn months?

Of course, we know what it will be like. It will be chaos, as it was last winter, the winter before and the winter before that. The hospital is bursting at its seams. It is operating at 130% of its capacity overall while the medical department is operating at 150% of capacity. Everybody's preferred option for solving this problem in the medium term is a 40-bed inpatient modular, or hotel-type, unit of accommodation.

Numerous Ministers have visited the hospital in recent years. The former Minister, Senator Reilly, the Taoiseach and, in October of last year, the current Minister, Deputy Harris, have visited. When he visited, the Minister for Health said that the situation was utterly unacceptable, that a solution had to be found and that we would have a decision before the end of the year. We are, however, still awaiting that decision.

Will the Taoiseach personally take up this matter and deal with the situation at the hospital? There is absolutely no privacy for patients on trolleys in corridors. The staff of the hospital are under huge pressure. As I said, the hospital is bursting at the seams and approval for this 40-bed unit is awaited. Will the Taoiseach ensure that the provision of such a unit is approved as a matter of urgency? Will he begin the process today?

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