Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

One way in which we can help to relieve pressure on our front-line workers is by eliminating trolleys in our hospitals. In the past month, patients and trolleys are something we have again started to see within our hospitals throughout the country. We need to take action now to address the bed crisis. That is the very minimum we owe to front-line healthcare staff throughout Ireland.

Take, for example, Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe. Since the start of June, on average eight patients have been on trolleys every single day. A total of 10% of the beds of the hospital have been lost as a direct result of the measures to reduce the risk of infection from Covid-19. We need to see direct and immediate action taken to address this problem. Would the Taoiseach not agree that our healthcare workers have been under enough pressure for the past four months from a virus we could not control? Let us not add to that. Let us take action now on something we can control.

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