Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to raise the important issue of overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick, UHL. I am disappointed that the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, has not got the time, inclination or interest to be here to discuss such an important issue. He has no problem, however, travelling to Limerick next week to participate in the opening of what is referred to as the health science academy at University Hospital Limerick. I will read what was stated about that facility, namely, "In collaboration with the University of Limerick, UL, and the mid-west community healthcare organisation, CHO, UL hospital group have developed a health science academy with an emphasis on research, education and training programmes, which will have clear outcomes for patients and impact patient care". The opening has been postponed by two weeks because the last time the Minister for Health was supposed to be present to perform the opening and showboat for the cameras, some 85 patients in the hospital were on trolleys. That event was cancelled hastily, and the Minister was able to duck his responsibility of dealing with the crisis at the hospital.

The Minister of State knows full well, and this is no fault of his, that over the past four years the annual number of patients on trolleys has almost quadrupled. In 2012, there were 3,626 patients on trolleys according to the yearly count. This year, the figure is 12,810 and that is only up to 28 November. That is an appalling situation.

I can go through case after case of constituents of mine who are affected because the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick deals with patients in three counties, as well as Limerick city. People contact my office daily to tell me about outrageous situations endured by elderly and sick people. An example is that of a farmer in his 70s who was rushed to the hospital when he collapsed on his farm. He remained on a trolley in the accident and emergency unit for almost three days, while still in his dirty farming clothes. He was located beside a patient with an ulcerated leg. It was not possible for his clothes to be changed or for him to have a shower. That man remained on the trolley for almost three days until he was transferred to a ward. That is an appalling situation and is just one of many such cases I hear about daily. People in their 90s are spending 48 hours in what is an accident and emergency department, where the lights are on and there is no capacity to get some sleep. It is a terrible situation in which to treat someone. The nurses and doctors I talk to, who are not alarmist, are saying it is impossible for them to do their job. They cannot get medical equipment through to check blood pressure because of the way the trolleys are stuffed into the space. What we do not want is the Minister coming down to have his photograph taken again outside and inside some new development that is going to benefit people in the future, or at least that is how it is being presented. I want to see the Minister appoint someone, before the end of this week, with a budget and the capacity to look at all of the resources available in the mid-west region and then to try to use them to the greatest extent.

There are closed beds, wards and areas that can be reopened. We need to end this rubbish talk of there not being an embargo on the employment of nurses and doctors, because there is one. That topic has been raised in this House in recent days. There are nurses prepared to come back to this country if they are given full-time contracts. This is a serious situation. I am not crying wolf. I do not play that game. I understand how these things work, but a life will be lost unnecessarily - if lives have not already been lost unnecessarily - because of the overcrowded conditions in which nurses and doctors are expected to deliver services. We need a response from the Minister as soon as possible.

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