Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Louise O'Reilly for bringing this motion before the House. I have no hesitation in supporting it. I also thank the Minister for confirming that he is not opposing the motion. In addition, I congratulate the Taoiseach today for his announcement that there will be an increase in bed capacity. That is certainly a change because up to now successive Governments have confirmed that we needed fewer beds, which I never accepted.

The accident and emergency crisis and the trolley crisis are simply a symptom of a health system that is under enormous pressure. That is the case due to a sustained policy of reducing resources. I was a proud member of the health forum for ten years. Back in 2006, before the financial and banking crisis, we had closed wards and closed beds in the regional hospital in Galway. Different language was used at the time such as "cost-containment measures" and "bed refurbishment" which was a new one on me. The crisis has been deliberately created by successive Governments, which opted for private medicine. They did that in a very blunt way through various initiatives. They systematically ran down the public system, leaving beds and wards closed.

As the Minister is aware, before Christmas we discovered that a brand new ward, St. Finbar's, was closed in a centre of excellence in Galway. I hope that came as a surprise to the Minister. It came as a surprise to me. One of the initiatives in response to two theatres closing in Merlin Park due to water ingress was to open up the closed St. Finbar's ward. I did not hear the Minister or any Government politician express shock or ask the management why the ward was closed in the first place in the centre of excellence.

We have had various initiatives that actively promoted the private health system. The National Treatment Purchase Fund was introduced as a temporary measure but it has become a long-term measure. The special delivery unit was a temporary measure and as a consequence of that money is going into the private system. The then Minister, Mary Harney, declared an emergency at a time when there were just 495 patients on trolleys. While she was declaring that emergency she was simultaneously actively promoting co-location of private hospitals on public lands. The trolley crisis did not happen yesterday. It has happened over a period of years as a result of the policies of various Governments which believed that private medicine is better than public medicine and one way or another have actively supported that system.

If we come back to Galway city there is a congested site and very bad decisions have been made that have added to that. The Minister knows the answer is to start planning for a new hospital in Merlin Park where we have 150 acres of land. In New York Central Park has 800 acres for a population of approximately 12 million. We have a population of 80,000 and we have one park with 150 acres yet we cannot see fit to build a hospital there. We have allowed bad decision after bad decision to add to a congested site in Galway. As a result of that the helicopter service moved and took over a public park for three to six months. Can one imagine that? Over three years later it is still in the public park.

Wards are closed and in addition there is a complete absence of primary care facilities. There is no primary care facility on the west side of the city in Galway and we have no mental health primary care facilities whatsoever. We have an ambulance service working from containers in Merlin Park. There was a recent scandal involving a child on a visit to Connemara who almost died while waiting for an ambulance that did not arrive for more than an hour. I could mention many other decisions.

The only thing that disappoints me about the Minister tonight is that he talked about giving a counter-narrative. There is no need for that. We know that nurses and doctors are doing their best on the ground. What we want are solutions and a recognition that the health service is sick. It is sick not because of the staff on the ground but because of what I have outlined, a sustained plan to undo it.

As a result of that plan, mistake after mistake has been made. Unfortunately, I know this, professionally and personally, as a result of my family's experience. The cost of reviews, tribunals and independent case reviews is a matter I will raise again with the Minister in the future.

Let me return to the numbers on trolleys. Galway has the highest number today, that is, 38 out of the 541 people on trolleys. When the emergency was declared by the then Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney, in 2006, there were, as already stated, 495 people on trolleys. On 3 January this year, 677 were on trolleys. Two years ago, the Government negotiated with the Independents in respect of a heartbeat in Waterford being more important than a heartbeat in Galway or any other part of this country rather than having them make a commitment based on what we all knew at that point, namely, that the health service is not fit for purpose.

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