Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I welcome the fact that we are having a discussion on this issue this evening. As with my earlier contribution on the roadmap, I would appreciate if the Minister would take on board some of what I am going to say in the limited time available to.

On the flu vaccine, I understand the international issues. Last October some of us were advocating that everybody should get the flu vaccine. We would have had a head start. Unfortunately, we did not do that. While there are international factors, we could have been ahead of the game. Can the Minister, or the Minister of State coming in to sum up, update us on where we are on the roll out of the flu vaccine? Dr. Nina Byrnes and other prominent GPs across the country have been saying that it has been coming in small doses and some people in my own constituency have said the same thing. Are we going to be able to get to the target group? Are we going to be able to get to the over 80s, about whom I spoke earlier and which includes my own parents, and to the vulnerable groups on time?

The second issue I wish to raise is on non-Covid19 healthcare. I want the Minister - I will be asking the Taoiseach next week and he will probably revert to the Minister - to provide me with a table for January to September 2019 and 2020, showing the number of people diagnosed with cancer per month and the type of cancer and the same for coronary conditions. I also want the table to show the treatments. We have to deal with Covid-19 healthcare but we also have to deal with non-Covid-19 healthcare. It is not a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. I appreciate that the Minister for Health has a very difficult job but we have to look after both of these groups. There is no point saying that, unfortunately, we lost one person through Covid-19 in the past couple of days, if we are losing more people due to other chronic and serious issues like cancer, or heart conditions. It is as simple as that. I want the Minister for Health, through the Taoiseach, to ask that question. It is very rare for the leader of one of the parties in opposition to give the Government a week to get information, and to say that he will ask the same question next week. We need to know this as does the country. We have to diagnose proportionately the same number of people, and probably improve in some categories, as we were last year.

We have all heard anecdotal evidence. I heard of a surgeon in the mid-west who is a specialist in rectal cancers. He has not been diagnosing the same number of patients as he was last year. That means that there are many males, in particular, who do not know that they have cancer. That means delayed outcomes and more mortalities. Put that in an equation versus what we are doing about Covid-19. We must then get these statistics.

I remember the Minister sitting beside me here for years, and also in committee, and he always used the phrase that it is all about the data. Let us find out the data. I have also tabled parliamentary questions on this and I have asked the Taoiseach.

We need more detail on the beds issue. I have said here on numerous occasions that the numbers announced in the plan and the real numbers are different. I will not bother boring everybody by going through it again but the net effect is that there are not as many beds as is being said. I want to see the detail of this plan. Where are the beds going? There is a chronic issue in University Hospital Limerick, UHL. It has to get that 96-bed block and it has to be built using this rapid-build technology. Use the Covid-19 emergency legislation.

I will make a positive suggestion to the Minister. The Covid-19 emergency legislation which allows the Minister to do a whole range of different buildings will run out soon. It needs to be extended because some of the projects may be outside its remit and may face planning or other issues. I know about that because there is a €1.5 million outpatients department being put in Nenagh, and in Thurles there is a €2.4 million facility to deal with elderly members of the community as a hospital prevention measure. Can the Minister tell us where the beds are going to go? We are desperate in the mid-west to know what is going to happen there.

I welcome all the hospital prevention measures being brought in across the country. I have serious questions on staffing. Some 12,500 staff members were mentioned. I was here when questions were asked about this and I could have answered them because according to the plan, there will be 5,000 staff provided before Christmas and 7,500 will be provided after Christmas. I will tell the Minister in a straightforward way that if he can get 12,500 staff members into the health service by next April, I will buy him a good bottle of whiskey.

If he can even get the 10,000, I will buy him a good bottle of whiskey. I know we are being flippant, and it is not a joke, but I want to see a plan and I will work with the Minister on where we will get all of these nurses, and particularly specialists and doctors, that he is committed to delivering.

On cancer screening, I want to see a clinical reason BreastCheck screening has gone to three years. I have asked that question. The screening was always every two years but now, because of Covid-19, it will be every three years. I do not buy that and most people who have knowledge of this do not buy it either.

I want to raise a couple of other issues. As regards the funding that has been announced, I have a huge interest in people with intellectual disabilities. They have been let down. They are our most vulnerable. We need to ensure the plan deals with that issue, and obviously with mental health also.

I want to see more diagnostics going into the community. I refer to all the different doctors who are in co-operatives across the country. We all know they are co-operatives and are private practice but they need extra supports because they are acting in a different way now. They are acting as part of a different type of network in an emergency. They need supports so the Minister should target them.

I have a real issue with what happened with regard to private hospitals. It is not today or yesterday I said that but I will always stand over it. At the beginning of this crisis we should have bought one of the two main private hospitals in Dublin, if not both of them. The Minister will need capacity. That is the quickest way of getting it. People are saying the total amount of public and private beds will be the same but we need public capacity. I believe it would be cheaper in the long term and I still believe the Minister should consider it.

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