Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to speak about the ongoing issues in the geriatric ward in Cork University Hospital. I also want to talk about patient and staff safety. For the past four days, I have been listening to stories on "The Neil Prendeville Show" on RedFM about what witnesses have experienced in the geriatric ward. I am sure the Minister of State is familiar with the station.

In the past number of days, I have received numerous pieces of information about managers at the top level not coming down onto the floor and inspecting the place. I have heard about issues where if front-line staff, including nurses, seek help, or tell their managers they cannot cope, they are classed as troublemakers. How does one run a service when the top and the middle do not link up, never mind bottom?

Obviously, the issue here is long-term underfunding. Recruitment has been an awful issue here and there have been many health and safety issues. I listened to one poor woman who said there was no seating for the patient in the shower unit in the geriatric ward. It was a simple little handrail, that was it. The same lady witnessed a gentleman mopping the floor. Once he had finished mopping the floor, he proceeded to clean the shower tray with the same mop. Health and safety seems to be a big issue there.

I want the Minister of State to investigate a number of issues. The number one issue is that I have heard the conditions in this ward are absolutely appalling. It is 2020 and we are letting down our elderly and most frail. I listened to another woman who said she will never go back to that ward or even go to the hospital. She is in her 80s and said she will take her chances if she breaks something. If she can get to her armchair in her living room, she will happily die there. Those are not my words and, as I said, I have listened to this debate on the radio for past number days. I am not taking the side of patients and families, or staff and their families. I am here to ask the Minister of State to investigate, so we can help everybody here, that is, the staff and patients in Cork University Hospital, CUH.

I want to raise the issue of penny-pinching. Again, it is not picking on particular staff but this is down to contracts and management whereby agency staff are given time slots of two minutes to clean area A, five minutes for area B, and so forth. It is totally inadequate. Then we wonder why people are getting sicker when they go to hospital.

Another issue I wish to raise in this short time, which I will revisit, is that of the so-called unannounced visits by HIQA. Many of these so-called unannounced visits are not unannounced. I learned today that the so-called unannounced visit to the Cork geriatric ward is next Monday. I have been told that staff will be brought in over the weekend to move trolleys into empty wards and clean the place before this visit. How are we to help patients and ensure the safety of staff who genuinely want to work there when nobody is taking responsibility? If HIQA is not doing its job properly, then somebody has to be responsible for it. That is what I want to get to the bottom of here. We need to help everybody in this scenario, that is, the staff and patients in CUH. I hope to God it is not happening in other places around the country but if this is what I have been told about so-called unannounced inspections, then I fear there could be a domino effect.

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