Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I raise again with the Taoiseach the dangerous overcrowding in our hospitals. I raise it again today because of figures released by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, indicating that 679 patients are waiting today without beds in Ireland's hospitals. This is the highest daily figure of 2019 and the second highest ever recorded. The INMO has rightly described this as "obscene" and it has told us its members are faced with inhumane working conditions, with patients being put at increased risk. This is a very familiar story and I and others have consistently raised these matters with the Taoiseach. Yet here we are again today with 679 patients without beds. Not all are on trolleys as in some cases there is not even a trolley.

The Taoiseach should imagine he needs to go to hospital today because he is sick or experiencing an emergency. He would already be worried and his family would be worried. He should imagine how he would feel, knowing our hospitals are creaking under the strain and pressure they face. It would be an upsetting or terrifying experience.

This is not just a matter of numbers. This is about people who deserve far better than the perpetual crisis that the Government visits on our health service. What we have witnessed on the Government's watch is a complete and utter failure in health policy. For eight years now, Governments have failed to make any inroads into tackling the trolley crisis. We have had three Fine Gael Ministers for Health, including the Taoiseach, and things have not got any better. In fact, the situation gets worse by the month and year. Record numbers of people have been left on trolleys for the first ten months of this year. As we progress deeper into the winter, this problem will become more acute. Last week, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation published figures showing that 11,452 patients in Irish hospitals were left without beds in October. These numbers should cause alarm bells to ring. They reflect the fact that the Government has failed to tackle this real and immediate pressure.

As I have said previously, to address the crisis, the Government can and should do a number of things around recruitment and retention of staff, the reopening of closed beds, step-down facilities, more home help hours and investment in primary and community care. Given that the Taoiseach has consistently ignored those pleas, what does he have to say today to the staff and patients in University Hospital Limerick, which again has the highest number of people on trolleys, and Cork University Hospital, which has the second highest number and has been under extraordinary pressure for some time? What does he have to say to the staff working in dangerous conditions and the patients, in particular the 674 patients who are left today without a bed?

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