Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have two minutes each. I listened with interest to the Minister earlier as he blamed Fianna Fáil for the current state of the health service. I remind the Minister that his party has been in power for more than eight years and each and every year during that time the number of people languishing on trolleys in our accident and emergency departments has risen. Fine Gael has broken the wrong kind of historic records in respect of the numbers of people on trolleys annually. Some 28 people are languishing on trolleys in my local hospital, St. Luke's, in Kilkenny, and another 20 are on trolleys in University Hospital Waterford.

In the south east, we are still fighting for equality of cardiac care. It is the only region without 24-7 cardiac facilities and people are fearful that recent overspending in other areas of the health service could keep us waiting even longer for those essential lifesaving services. The situation in our hospitals is scandalous and unfair on our hardworking staff, as well as our sick and vulnerable citizens. There is a major problem with GP retention in rural Ireland and the Government must focus on this issue and incentivise GPs to avail of contracts in rural practices. It must also be ensured that these practices are adequately equipped, resourced and staffed.

If we can treat more people in GP surgeries, we will then have fewer people being admitted to accident and emergency departments. The Government must also address the many issues relating to delayed discharges. This is a major problem in Kilkenny and home care packages are needed to facilitate care and healing in the comfort of people's own homes. Too many beds are being taken up by people who have been officially discharged by hospitals but who cannot go home as they have no home care packages in place or are awaiting approval of their applications.

The Minister owes it to the hardworking staff in our hospitals, who have held the health system together in recent years, to ensure that he does not continue to preside over such chaos. I ask him to take the seriousness of this situation on board, given that we are not even near the end of the winter yet. We have another month to go during which there may be sickness, such as that caused by flu epidemics. The conditions in hospitals will get worse unless and until we do something about them.

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