Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Everybody in Laois and in this House would accept and agree that patient safety is the most important aspect of the services in Portlaoise but this plan does not achieve that goal. In 2014, the Health Information Quality Authority, HIQA, produced a report at the request of the Minister and a second report was issued in December 2016. I will quote the statement of Dr. O'Reilly from two days ago. She states, "Specifically, in December 2016 HIQA again highlighted significant patient risk at the hospital and found that the governance arrangement in the emergency department remained largely unchanged" from 2014. Who was the regional manager from 2014 to 2016 who did nothing? In 2015, she announced the scaling down of the accident and emergency department, which did more than anything to undermine public and staff confidence. It put people off coming to take up positions in Portlaoise. Her actions before she put pen to paper to draft a report undermined the accident and emergency department. People said it was not a place to go to further one's career. That act did more to damage patient safety in Portlaoise hospital than any other action by any other person. She has done more damage than good to Portlaoise hospital.

She should have spent those two years upgrading the accident and emergency department, as it was done in the maternity section. HIQA found problems in the maternity area and there are now management arrangements with the Coombe, as well as extra resources and staff. The same is required in the accident and emergency department but she chose not to act. As a result, we are where we are. Looking at the national context of the report, one can see we need positive leadership for the region and somebody who will approach the matter positively so as to build services. Who would ever speak about closing hospital services, as proposed in the document, with 680,000 people on waiting lists? There is also talk of investment in the Coombe but the Government has already made the decision to close the Coombe hospital and move it to the St. James's Hospital site after the national paediatric hospital is built.

I ask the Minister to meet Members now rather than after a decision is made. Dr. O'Reilly wrote to me last week asking to meet and I will do that next Tuesday to discuss the matter.

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