Dáil debates

Thursday, 10 October 2019

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions

Hospitals Winter Plan

10:00 am

Photo of Stephen DonnellyStephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The reality is that under the most recent Fianna Fáil Government, the number of beds increased by well over 1,000. There were a small number of years when a few beds came out. Does the Minister believe that this is causing the current failures? He and his colleagues have been in government for nine years. They have almost had a decade in power. In the Minister's term alone, the health budget will have increased by almost €5 billion. We need to start solving these problems. It is not helpful to pretend that overcrowding in emergency departments today is caused by beds being taken out of the system over a period of two or three years 15 years ago. There is overcrowding today because we have the lowest number of doctors anywhere in the developed world, the diagnostic suites are not open often enough and the home care packages are not in place, which means that delayed discharges are pushing back onto the system. This is a whole-system issue.

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