Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I spoke to the Minister two weeks ago about the situation regarding private hospitals. It is shocking. I know the reason we took them over and now it is time to give them back. Private health cover is not a privilege in Ireland; it is a necessity, as many middle-income families are not entitled to a medical card.

It was right at the time but it is wrong to continue it now. It is shocking. I have received figures from a woman from Cork who contacted me about her sister. Her case is so sad. For the last 45 years her sister has paid into the private health insurance to cover all hospital stays. She has never asked the taxpayer to pay for her medical treatment. She is now 66 years of age and in need of urgent surgery for a stage 3 prolapse which could progress to a stage 4 emergency at any minute. Her consultant tells her she will have to wait until July or maybe September. Each day this surgery is delayed means further damage to her body.

This is shocking. There are thousands of cases like this around the country. It is particularly upsetting at the moment, when private hospitals have the capacity to deal with the situation at no expense to the State. It is shocking to be blackguarded this way after 45 years paying insurance. This woman also gave me figures concerning the inpatient beds and bed occupancy in hospitals in Cork. She has provided the figures for Bon Secours Hospital in the weeks of April 14, April 20, April 28 and May 7. I hope the Minister is listening to this and knows what is going on. On April 14, Bon Secours Hospital had 30 occupied beds. There were 16 the following week, 85 the next week and 103 the next. That is out of 300 beds. This is a shocking waste of facilities.

Mater Private Hospital Cork has a capacity of 102 beds. Its counterpart in Dublin is probably worse. There were six beds occupied one week, 25 another week, 37 the next week and 23 the next. This is shocking. Women there are waiting for cervical smear tests. There are all kinds of checks to be done and private consultants to do them, but they are not being done. The Government is fighting and wrangling over accounts. What is going on? Is this a scamdemic or a pandemic? I think it is a scam and this is a scam. People are being bled dry. They pay €100 a week for health cover and they cannot get it.

Another poor man from my own constituency contacted me last night. Mr. O'Brien is a decent man, a grandfather, father and husband. He spent 17 years in the Irish Defence Forces. He attended the accident and emergency department in Clonmel at 11 p.m. last night and was discharged again at 2.30 a.m., having been told that no urologists were available. He was in excruciating pain. His family brought him to University Hospital Waterford. I support the previous speaker on the cath lab for the south east. Today the family were informed that there is no urologist on duty at University Hospital Waterford due to the current situation. What is going on in the hospitals? The authorities suggested transferring him to a care home, without being tested for Covid-19 or anything else. What is the Government doing? Is this man no longer fit for a hospital or for treatment because he is 73? Is he just to be put into a nursing home? People with the Covid were put into nursing homes and infected all that was inside of them. That is what the Government did.

Ministers and senior officials are being held to account today in the Supreme Court of Spain. That will have to happen here too. Wilful waste makes woeful want. There is blackguardism going on here.

I also want to ask the Minister about St. Bridgid's Hospital, a community district hospital in Carrick-on-Suir. It is a wonderful place. I have outlined its benefits before. There are three hospice beds there as well as other beds for convalescing. They have been commandeered for Covid-19 and now nobody is in there and the lights are out. When will that be reopened? When will the families who raised funds for those hospice beds be allowed to see their loved ones in their last moments in hospice care? That facility has the palliative team to provide this care and an excellent staff and management.

Another big fanfare surrounded Our Lady's Health Centre in Cashel. The Minister saw it a couple of years ago with a group of TDs which included myself. His jaw dropped when he saw the conditions it was in when empty. Hey presto. If Covid-19 would grant one wish, we thought it might open up the beds in Cashel. There are still no patients in there, despite the groundwork laid outside and the new flowerbeds and kerbs. What the hell does that have to do with anyone in the hospital? Now the hospital cannot get curtains. I heard the Minister on the "Six One News" saying that he could not buy a curtain because the home care shops are closed. Surely to God the HSE can procure curtains, blinds, or something to put up in the windows to cover them some way. This is a scamdemic.

It costs €200 per test. I have heard from people who have been tested twice when going into hospital and people who have not been tested at all, as described a moment ago by Deputy Danny Healy-Rae. The availability of capacity is a matter of the luck of the draw. People are making a lot of money out of this. A sum of €200 per test is outrageous. It is extortion. It should not be allowed. I heard from a woman who visited Cork University Hospital. She was instructed to get a test, which she did. Three days later she was told that the test was out of date and she should get another one. That was €400 down the drain, not for her thankfully but for the taxpayers. Where is this going to stop? When are we going to get the private hospitals and the consultants back? We have listened to Professor Michael O'Keefe and many others and to the doctor here in Dublin who resigned because of the blackguarding and the lack of oxygen available for patients in nursing homes. How can the Minister sleep at night thinking of this? How can Dr. Holohan and these people introducing these laws?

A very close relative of mine attended Cork University Hospital last week and was asked to keep a social distance of 1 m in the hospital.

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