Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Despite an undertaking by the previous Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, in 2011 to bring an end to the trolley crisis, seven years later we find ourselves debating this issue in circumstances where the problem has become worse not better. Fine Gael has been in government for seven years and has failed to achieve any health target it has set. It is not rocket science to know that January will be a busy month in the hospitals. Our party spokesman on health issues, Deputy Kelleher, highlighted this to the Minister and the HSE last February when they were before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health but here we are again with no apparent plan.

An adequate management system in emergency departments is impossible to maintain given that the recommended waiting times are constantly being overrun. The latter results in emergency departments remaining at capacity levels all year round. This is heightened at this time of the year thus making the situation worse. We have reached the point now where elective surgeries are being cancelled and the problem is extending outside the emergency department.

I spoke before Christmas to the family of a constituent in her 80s who fell and broke her hip. She lay on a trolley in Cork University Hospital, CUH, for 48 hours. This was after waiting hours for an ambulance and travelling from west Cork. Surely a woman in her 80s and in severe pain deserves better than that. I have heard many more such examples in my Cork South-West constituency.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation annual trolley and ward watch figures prove that CUH was one of the most overcrowded hospitals in the State in 2017. As late as last Sunday, the hospital began to transfer patients out to regional hospitals, including Clonakilty Community Hospital, in an effort to alleviate the pressure on the emergency department in CUH.

Bed numbers need to be increased in all hospitals. On numerous occasions in this House and at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health, I have alluded to the fact that many general hospitals, such as that in Bantry, are more than willing to increase their workload and more than capable of doing so should they be given adequate resources. With reports indicating that 2,500 beds are required with immediate effect, it is imperative that the Government and the Minister for Health make this their priority.

See this speech in context