Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise what is a very important issue in my constituency, namely, the future of services at Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise. I am disappointed that the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, is not here this afternoon. Indeed, I raised this matter last autumn and the Minister was not here on that occasion either.

Essentially, the Minister is the source of the problem in respect of Portlaoise. A report has been on the Minister's desk since September 2017 relating to the hospital in Portlaoise. The report includes proposals to close the emergency department and the maternity department and to ensure that all deliveries take place at the Coombe hospital in Dublin. It also proposes closing the paediatric care unit and the intensive care unit as well as ceasing all inpatient surgery. This report was drafted by the HSE and after detailed engagement between the HSE and departmental officials it was presented to the Minister last September, which is seven months ago. At this stage, the future of Portlaoise hospital is out of the hands of the HSE and is in the hands of the Minister for Health, the Cabinet and the Government. Nobody other than the Minister can make a decision on this matter. Therefore, it is up to him to bring the uncertainty regarding the future of the hospital in Portlaoise to an end. This uncertainty is undermining the hospital and causing damage to its future. As I have already mentioned, I raised this matter last November but got no detailed response on that occasion. Since then there was a large rally in Portlaoise in early December. I was pleased that Deputy O'Loughlin from Kildare attended that rally. She is with me in the House today because many people in the Kildare area use the hospital in Portlaoise.

The Laois Oireachtas Members met the Minister in December. He said that he would commence a process of consultation with local GPs and the community and he issued a press statement to that effect before Christmas. I tabled a parliamentary question for written reply on Tuesday last which asked the Minister who is chairing the consultation process that he announced last December, what meetings have taken place since that announcement and the timescale for the conclusion of the consultation process. The Minister's reply was that he had asked for a consultation process to be undertaken and that this is currently "under consideration". It is totally unacceptable that seven months after the Minister received a report, the consultation process on same has not even commenced.

I stated clearly last September that what was needed was a rejection of the report in its entirety and I told the Minister that arrangements should be put in place to improve services at Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise. The continued delay while this report sits on the Minister's desk is undermining confidence in the hospital and the staff who work there. It is undermining the confidence of patients and people who may want to avail of the hospital's services in the future. It is also undermining the potential recruitment of essential staff at the hospital. Why would anyone take up a senior medical post in the hospital when its future is not clear? There is a report on the Minister's desk which proposes the effective elimination of all services in the hospital. The Minister has allowed that report to sit on his desk for seven months and by doing so, he is deliberately contributing to an undermining of the future of Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise.

The only thing the Minister needs to do is to get formal Cabinet approval to reject that report in its entirety. He should ask himself why, at a time of such crisis nationwide, officials in the HSE and the Department of Health are spending so much time drawing up reports on the closure of the accident and emergency and maternity departments at Portlaoise hospital. He should have rejected the report when he received it last September, but he did not do so. I am calling on him to reject it now.

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