Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Deputy Butler on her elevation. I congratulate the front-line staff who put the patient at the heart of everything that was done during the Covid-19 crisis. Having contacted the press office today in our area, I am delighted to say that the 68 emergency beds did not need to be used due to the early control of Covid-19. As we have just heard, however, some 38 people were on trolleys today. We have 68 beds, for Covid-19, free in Limerick and we have 38 people on trolleys. When are we going to open the clinics? It seems that all that is happening is a virtual clinic, that is acting, and the can is being kicked down the road. Consultants are in the hospitals, but why are the patients not being met and referred for surgery in the hospitals where there are HSE beds?

In my maiden speech, I stated that the management of hospitals need to treat it like a business. The responsibility lies not only with the Minister, but with the CEOs of each hospital. If there is a public private partnership and a structure is worked out for throughout the year concerning the number of operations that each part will do, it is up to the CEO to control the consultants and to see that they release the beds, or otherwise they do not get new beds in future. That structure can continue throughout the year and a public private partnership, but it needs to be controlled by the CEOs. If those people are not doing their job, they should be accountable to the Minister. They should run it like a business and treat people properly. The consultants, however, have to get better. Before the election, I saw that some 33 operations were due to happen in a hospital in one week. Some 31 of those operations were private and two were public. That is not a public private partnership.

I have commended the Minister for the work he has done throughout the Covid-19 crisis and I have no problem commending a person who has tried his or her best. We have a chance now, however, to get our hospitals into a situation where we make the CEOs responsible and have contracts put in place with all of the consultants, so that if they have a partnership, they have to deliver and stick by what they have. If they manage to do enough operations in the year and they run short by three months, extend the contract with the same pro rata. Until they get to that point, however, we would not give them the extra beds. That would mean the consultants would have to get more efficient with their patients, from a public point of view, and not leave patients sitting in beds.

I have seen a person who came in for a scan on a Tuesday, who was told that the person doing that scan will not be back in until the following Tuesday, but the patient was admitted. The consultant was getting a full week with a person waiting for a scan and that bed was held up. The woman in the bed alongside, and she has all of the paperwork to prove this, told me that the person waiting for the scan left with her daughter during the day, went shopping and came back into the hospital bed because she was told that it was not possible to guarantee that the bed would be held. She was waiting for a scan until the following Tuesday. We could have treated somebody else in that bed, but the consultant was being paid for this person for a week.

That is fraud. We need to stand up and ensure that the CEOs are accountable to the Minister. I am asking for a new structure to be put in place and I would much appreciate anything that the Minister can do.

See this speech in context