Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister said last week that it might be a good idea to build more hospitals. How long will that take, particularly in view of the planning process and everything else? Many of the people who need assistance and medical attention today will have passed on by the time those hospitals are built, I am sorry to say.

Kenmare Community Hospital, a new community hospital built a short few years ago, is only half open. Why? Dingle Community Hospital is only half open. The land for that hospital was given free of charge. Why is it not fully open? These are the questions the Minister needs to ask the HSE. Some of the rooms in Dingle hospital have offices where beds should be.

Why can we not pay more doctors, surgeons, nurses and staff in times of need to work through the night and over the weekends to clear the backlog? We are sending buses to Belfast in the North so patients can have cataract procedures. A second bus went up last week. Another is to go next week. Thirteen patients had procedures last Sunday. The patients, from Cork and Kerry, had to go from one end of the country to the other for a simple procedure. The staff involved are working over weekends and through the night. Why can we not pay staff to do the same here and utilise the hospitals we have?

In Tralee General Hospital, there are many wards closed for a long number of years. Why are they not being opened? What is the matter? Is it a question of staffing? We are being told today all our newly qualified nurses are going abroad. Many of them are going to England. The English health service is advertising for and taking on Irish nurses.

Almost 700 people were on trolleys in hospitals throughout the country on the same day, which is ridiculous. In the middle of last May, there were 17 people on trolleys in Tralee. That is not right. The Minister needs to get an answer to these questions.

There was a man in Tralee General Hospital last week who needed to step down to Killarney Community Hospital but his family would have had to sign a fair deal application form before he could do so. He was ready to go but it is a big step for a family to sign the fair deal application form because it may mean the patient will not be coming home anymore. I need an answer to this question to know why this happened.

See this speech in context