Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister is aware, we have an ageing population. We are living longer, healthier lives which is very welcome. However when the older generation require hospitalisation they are anxious, nervous, frightened, bewildered and mostly in pain. The health service is overstretched. The emergency department, the part of our acute system that never says no, is the place where patients come up against access block and are unable to access an acute hospital bed.

I want to refer to the son and daughter of a 75 year old man who was admitted to the accident and emergency department in University Hospital Waterford on 1 December 2017. They articulate what we all know is happening all over the country. The trolley figures confirm this and I welcome this motion from Sinn Féin to briefly address this issue. The man's children said their main concerns relate to the clear overstretching of resources within the emergency department. They witnessed not only their father but many vulnerable patients on trolleys in corridors where the lights were on 24 hours a day seven days a week. Accordingly, sleeping was not an option and neither was a call for assistance. They witnessed patients needing to assist each other at times with only one accessible toilet for many to use. Alternatively, people were obliged to leave the unit out of view of the health care professionals. This was not an environment which promoted patient safety, dignity, privacy or confidentiality. Their father was unable to sleep. Placed at the end of the corridor he was frequently asked to push a door release button through a busy area as needed or staff had to lean over him to do this. The attention given by the nursing and medical staff was impeccable despite these difficult circumstances but to have vulnerable people on trolleys at 75 years of age in an open, unsafe area for three nights is not acceptable.

The reason this family went public was that they wanted to point out that the staff were fantastic but the circumstances in which they were working were very challenging. Unfortunately this gentleman died on 17 December and the family said that while they were more than aware that the outcome would most likely have been the same the initial period in the emergency department delayed active palliative treatment and allowed additional suffering that was not necessary.

The persistent problems in emergency departments must be tackled once and for all. It is simply unacceptable that the trolley crisis remains. The blockages will have to be removed. I was very interested to hear Mr. Tadhg Daly of Nursing Homes Ireland state during the Christmas period that there were approximately 1,400 beds available in nursing homes. This is an option to improve throughput of patients and quicker discharges of people from hospitals.

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