Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Bantry General Hospital has been a centre of excellence through this Covid-19 crisis and before. It covers more than 80,000 people in west Cork, many of whom are three hours away from Cork University Hospital, CUH. Yesterday I was informed by a family member in Bantry, who is only 1 km from our hospital, which is a centre of excellence, that their 88-year-old mother fell at 10 a.m. The family member rang the ambulance service at 10 a.m to take her to Bantry General Hospital, to be told their mother would not be taken by ambulance to the hospital next door and would instead be brought to CUH. The family insisted but to no avail. Three family members lifted their 88-year-old mother to the car and drove her, in pain, to Bantry hospital to find out she had a broken pelvis. Thanks to all in Bantry hospital she is making a great recovery and the family is truly grateful to the staff there for the way their mother is being cared for. I put it to the Minister that the game is over here. What is the plan for Bantry General Hospital? The buck stops with the Minister and we need answers. The HSE has sent experts to west Cork for the past nine months trying to sell alternative plans to the doctors and politicians but no-one is buying this plan. It would cost lives. The HSE cannot keep hiding behind Covid-19 and pushing the appointment of an anaesthetist down the road until we are in a crisis situation in Bantry. Will the Minister give me a cast-iron guarantee here today that the emergency services at Bantry General Hospital will not be reduced in any way going forward? In all fairness, the hospital should be getting an upgrade because it serves some 80,000 people in west Cork and parts of Kerry.

I shall now raise issues around the HIQA standards for care of the elderly facilities, specifically the bedroom and sleeping accommodation. In care of the elderly facilities, public and private, 80% of the bedrooms should be single bedrooms, with no more than three to four patients in multi-occupancy rooms. Infection control, privacy and the dignity of our elderly in nursing homes and community hospitals are the reasons given by HIQA for the need for these standards. I understand that the implementation date for the 80% single-occupancy standard was 2016. This was extended by statutory instrument to January 2021. Who signed this statutory instrument? What date was it signed on? Was a risk assessment done on infection control before the statutory instrument was signed?

If so, will the Minister supply it to me? In terms of State-owned care of the elderly facilities, such as community hospitals, did financial consideration play a role in the decision by the Minister to defer the implementation date of these HIQA standards? Does the Minister accept that multi-occupancy rooms make infection control very difficult, especially for old and vulnerable people? Does the Minister accept the statutory instrument has probably cost lives? Will the extended date of January 2021 be met in all of our community hospitals?

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