Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the Minister of State delivered a prepared reply. She read out ten or 11 paragraphs but only the final one dealt with my question.

I live in Claddagh in Galway and am fully aware of the background to TB, that it is treatable and that patients with active TB attend hospitals. All of that is accepted. I ask the Minister of State to please address the question as to whether the appropriate protocols and procedures were followed in this case. Why was a patient with active TB resident on at least two wards without being isolated? How could the TB be undiagnosed when the patient had a history of TB?

The Minister of State confirmed that a review will take place. The patient was admitted early this year. Why has a review not yet taken place? Surely, a review should have taken place immediately to determine why the TB was not diagnosed, why the patient was not isolated and why a significant number of staff on different wards contracted latent TB. Those questions should have been answered by the Minister of State. Was there an internal review? If not, why not? Did the hospital not realise the importance of this matter?

I do not want to have to raise such issues in the House. I am very proud of Galway. I want a public health system of which we can be proud. However, events of this nature keep occurring and it is only when the matter is raised in the Dáil that a review is carried out. That does not engender confidence in our health system. I want to build confidence in it. I want the hospital in Galway to function. It has many problems relating to a lack of staff and so on and I fully support it in that regard. However, the Minister of State should be able to tell me whether a review of this matter was carried out, what was learned and what action was subsequently taken.

I should be hearing that a care package was provided for the staff in a caring manner. I should not be hearing comments to the effect that tests are not carried out willy-nilly.

See this speech in context