Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the speedy inquiry into the voting debacle.

I might direct the Taoiseach's attention to what is the norm in our hospital in Galway. However, it highlights in the most acute way the utter failure of the Taoiseach and the Government to focus on public health and the hospital in Galway. As recently as 25 September in the Taoiseach's absence, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, answered questions and I raised the hospital in Galway. I specifically raised it in the context of the INMO statement that warned that Saolta management should be gravely concerned due to the high levels of missed care, delayed care and poor patient outcomes arising from the number of nursing and midwifery vacancies.

I went on to highlight the 200 vacancies. The Taoiseach mentioned primary care which is an illusion. I mentioned the de factoembargo in primary care and I mentioned 11 posts. I mentioned the continued closure of a theatre at Merlin Park and a consultant telling us that the situation was unbearable and that management could not cope with it. Since then I have discovered that there have been 13 external reviews into the situation at the hospital over a ten-year period, which is more than one a year. It looks like we are heading for another external review.

A family contacted me about what happened to their 74 year old mother. I ask the Taoiseach to listen and put himself in the shoes of that woman or, indeed, on the trolley on which she spent 72 hours even though the policy and ethos in the hospital require that it be no more than 24 hours. That woman was admitted from another hospital with a suspected infection which I might add was hospital acquired. Subsequently, during her three days on the trolley she was found on the floor screaming in pain.

Nobody knows how it happened. She was taken back to a bed or trolley and left for five solid hours without having an X-ray or pain relief. The family who have no medical training diagnosed that she had a broken hip. As the Taoiseach can imagine, it must have been very obvious. Subsequently, when they had a little energy, almost two and a half weeks later they made a formal complaint, but they heard nothing from the hospital until the formal complaint was made. Once it was made, they received a telephone call and learned that some investigation was in being. We do not know what type of investigation is being carried out, who is behind it, when it started or when it will be completed. I want the Taoiseach to take a hands-on approach. I also want the Minister for Health to come into the Dáil with a written statement and convey to us verbally what happened to this patient in Galway, how it happened, why the family were not contacted and explain to us exactly what happened because, unfortunately, it is not unusual or uncommon.

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