Dáil debates

Tuesday, 15 October 2019

Health and Childcare Support (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2019 [Seanad]: Second Stage

 

7:50 pm

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

I will be guided by the Ceann Comhairle. How bad is the understaffing? I refer to Tallaght Hospital which serves the constituency the Minister and I represent, as well as County Kildare and a large swathe of County Dublin. An equivalent hospital in the NHS or in Northern Ireland would have approximately 16 consultants in emergency medicine. Tallaght Hospital has four such posts, one quarter of the number that would be enjoyed in Northern Ireland. Of those four posts, two are currently being filled by locums. Tallaght Hospital, which serves a significant swathe of Wicklow, Kildare and Dublin, has two full-time consultants in emergency medicine in post. On patients waiting for treatment, all Deputies are aware of the 70-year-old woman who had to wait four and a half days on a trolley in University Hospital Limerick. The reality is that the solutions are right in front of us. We can hire more consultants in emergency medicine. That would mean reversing the inequality in pay for new entrant consultants, but no provision was made for that in the budget.

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