Martin Ferris (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I find it difficult to understand how the HSE can say it received no formal resignation, yet it says it has a consultant on a weekly basis and another on a monthly basis treating cardiac patients in Kerry. My information is that a part-time cardiologist comes to the hospital for one day or perhaps two days per week. That is deemed to be sufficient despite the huge waiting lists in the hospital. That is not accurate. Another consultant is on a monthly basis. The Minister of State says they "run additional outpatient clinics with a view to reducing long waiting times for new patients". Somebody is being economical with the truth here. My information is that Dr. Keary has resigned and that nobody has replaced him. Somebody is coming from Cork once or twice a week in order to try to deal with the backlog.

It also says here that people can go to the hospitals in Limerick or Cork for treatment. We are talking here about a situation where a person with severe coronary attack has to travel by ambulance - if they are lucky enough to survive - and that journey is 65 miles one way and 80 miles another way. That is not acceptable in this day and age.

I will now turn to the issues regarding the accident and emergency department in the hospital in Kerry, which was raised in the House during this morning's discussion on promised legislation. People contacted my office at 3 a.m. and described that accident and emergency department as a war zone with so many people on hospital beds and so forth. At 4.45 a.m this morning, a great friend of mine passed away in a nursing home at the age of 90. Three weeks ago he had been on a trolley in the accident and emergency department in Tralee for more than 36 hours.

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