Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Emergency department and hospital overcrowding does not have to be an accepted and inevitable reality. While it is a difficult problem to solve, it can be solved. It requires leadership from the Government and the HSE management, so that all HSE staff understand what direction the health service is going and what is the ultimate destination. It is said that a ship setting sail without a destination is destined to drift and ultimately flounder. Unfortunately, this is where the Government is taking our health service; on one long, tortuous journey with no destination in sight.

In any organisation that is lacking leadership one will have discontented staff and lack of productivity, which in this case is ultimately being reflected in hospital overcrowding and the endless crisis in our accident and emergency departments.

There are solutions, however. We need to empower our GPs through primary care centres and with access to efficient diagnostics, so that more patients are treated in the community. We need a focused and efficient home help service to keep older people living at home for longer. We need effective step-down facilities to eradicate the problem of bed blocking. We also need an end to the embargo on recruitment and an acknowledgement that we are operating in a world market where we are trying to recruit the best nurses and doctors available.

As other Members have said, we are just entering into the winter months and figures are at a record level. We must get solutions. Things have to change.

See this speech in context