Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to speak on this important matter this evening. Some 12 months ago, we in the Rural Independent Group tabled a motion on healthcare, in which we said that there was a failure of Government to fully implement A Vision for Change. Indeed, A Vision for Change has been very unkind to us in Tipperary with regard to mental health services. I remember when it was introduced by the then Minister of State, former Teachta Moloney. We know that A Vision for Change is well out of date. It has lived up to very few of the expectations and promises made in it. A Vision for Change included building capacity in child and mental health services, CAMHS, provision of counselling and psychological services in primary care, and fully populating community psychiatric teams. We asked Government to ensure a coherent implementation plan which would be immediately acted on to address the increasing lack of capacity and unmet need in our health services, especially at primary care and local level. We cannot deal with that on the ground. We have the result in Tipperary. The hospitals that serve us, South Tipperary General Hospital and Limerick University Hospital, are jammed daily. The numbers attending are shocking and increasing by the month.

There needs to be consistent work towards expanding the availability of diagnostic services to seven-day access, to speed up patient diagnosis and indeed treatment in a timely manner at primary care level. I thank the Minister for joining me two years ago to visit two wonderful healthcare facilities in Clonmel, Mary Street Medical Centre and Western House Medical Centre. The first one is a wonderful service. I have to declare an interest in this, since it is my family's medical centre. It had fabulous diagnostic equipment which the Minister saw. It dealt with all the ups and downs and ins and outs of the HSE to try to offer a diagnostic service. Several months after the Minister's visit and intervention, which I acknowledge, it got a contract one Friday evening and it was delighted to get a two-week service. There were substantial waiting lists in South Tipperary General Hospital and the centre was offering this service. It got the contract that Friday to start on Monday morning. There was no time to roll it out to all the GPs in south Tipperary. It did it and there was good take-up, which relieved the pressure on the hospital. After eight days, as I discussed both in the Chamber and privately with the Minister, the service was withdrawn. After two and a half years and high level meetings, including with the Minister, it was removed after eight days because there was no money to fund it.

It was a no-brainer because it was relieving the queues for ultrasound in South Tipperary General Hospital and people were being seen almost immediately. There was connectivity with University Hospital Limerick to read X-rays and such. Much work went into this but the service fell before it got to the second fence. That is a shame. It has the equipment and there are several doctors there whom the Minister met. Between the complement of doctors, they have hundreds of years of experience.

A person has to wait several months to get into South Tipperary General Hospital, meet a locum or junior doctor who is falling asleep with fatigue and they have others to call on to deal with it. The entire situation is akin to putting the cart before the horse. It is frightening. Progress with the development of primary care has been appalling. That is not a new problem. In 2017 the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, described primary care budget provision as deeply disappointing and regressive from a health perspective. They are not my words, I am quoting the IMO in 2017.

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