Dáil debates

Thursday, 10 September 2020

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate

Hospital Services

5:15 pm

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

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. He knows I am straight-talking. Can we stop blaming Covid-19 for this? I never mentioned Covid-19 in my opening remarks. Some of this is historic and goes back to 2016. We cannot blame Covid-19 and we probably cannot blame Brexit.

It is my job as a public representative to say to the Minister of State that if a patient or staff member is not being fully supported and his or her health, well-being, mental health and physical safety is being put at risk, it has nothing to do with Covid-19. It has to do with management of the area, misrepresentation and what I said to the Minister of State about so-called unannounced visits. The Minister of State mentioned risk management, outbreak management, staff symptom declaration and staff segregation. We are not talking about that but about elderly patients being left in their soiled beds without help. We are talking about patients who cannot feed themselves. When the server puts the plate on the table, walks away and comes back in an hour later, he or she sees the plate is still full and assumes the patient is not hungry. Certain protocols are not being properly pushed here and the public are aggrieved and they are blaming the staff who are overworked and under-resourced.

I ask the Minister of State to forget Covid-19 as an excuse. One of the safest places on the planet is supposed to be one's hospital but the patients and the staff here are not being looked after. Will the Minister of State carry out a full review and find out if this so-called announced HIQA visit is actually happening next Monday? Is that true? If it is true, it is lying to the Minister of State. I have said that to other Ministers over the years in regard to mental health. The Minister of State cannot then do his job properly. He cannot come into this House and say to me that this is what he has been told. It might be what he has been told but he should listen to four days of people ringing in to a radio show and listen to mothers, patients and staff crying. However, he has said to me that we will blame Covid-19, throw in a few measures, thank HIQA and NPHET and everything will be grand but it is not grand.

I ask the Minister of State one more time on behalf of the staff in the unit, the patients and their families to investigate with HIQA and who put out that report. If it is true, who said that there is an unannounced visit by HIQA into ward 1A in CUH? There will be staff there over the weekend to sort things out and I can guarantee that there will be a chair in the shower, there will not be a smell out of the toilet bowl, people will be fed and everybody will be happy. If that is true, we should be ashamed of ourselves.

We are here to represent people and get things right. I am not here long enough, but the Minister of State can hear that I am angry. I am fed up of getting these one-liners. It is not his fault and it is not a personal attack on him, but on the system. I do not trust the HSE or HIQA, but I trust the parents and the service users who have had their testimonies on air. I trust the staff and their testimonies on air. Somebody must be telling the truth and somebody must be telling lies, which is why I am asking the Minister of State to investigate it. I believe that the staff, the patients and their families are telling the truth. The Minister of State is being misinformed by HIQA and the HSE.

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