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

I want to raise very serious concerns about Kerry University Hospital and health services in general in County Kerry. As the Minister may be aware, since the first week in June of this year all scheduled operations at Kerry University Hospital have been cancelled. The only operations that take place are emergency operations. To put it simply, if a person is waiting for a hip or knee operation, or any other scheduled operation, he or she must continue to wait.

That is a disgrace at a time when I am very worried about the future status of the hospital, in spite of assurances given at a meeting last week that it would retain its university hospital status. The departure of an ever-increasing number of consultants and what I consider to be the continuous downgrading by HSE management of the hospital leave me extremely worried.

I take the opportunity to compliment the hard-working staff in the emergency department and the hospital wards who do everything they can to help their patients. Those who avail of the services provided in the hospital are grateful to and thankful for the individuals working in it. However, I have marched with nurses and doctors working in emergency departments who have stated they want the Government to wake up and realise the pressure they are under. I have been in such departments late at night and early in the morning. During the summer recess I spent a lot of time in the departments because I wanted to have first-hand knowledge of what was going on in them. I have a perfect understanding of the difficulties and pressures the staff are under. Does the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, have such an understanding?

The notion which originated in this House many years ago that the Minister for Health does not have responsibility for the health service is rubbish. The buck stops with the Minister and the Government, not the HSE. The hiding behind layers of bureaucracy must end. People must take responsibility. The Minister for Health must take responsibility for the fact that people are endlessly waiting for operations. He must sit down with the heads of other Departments and discuss what can be done to tackle the problem. I wish to give an example. Why is it that a person waiting for a tonsillectomy must wait three years for the procedure to be carried out in this state and that I can arrange for the procedure to be carried out for a person who presents today with that requirement in Belfast in the first couple of weeks of November? For God's sake, this is not Outer Mongolia or some such place when it comes to health services. We should not be telling people that their tonsils will be fixed in three years time. Anyone who knows how uncomfortable it is to have such a problem will know that it is ridiculous for such a person to be told that there is a three-year wait. Why is this being allowed to happen on the Government's watch?

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