Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to refer to the programme for Government's commitment to protecting public health patients and ensuring capacity for future surges of Covid-19. As of yesterday, 61 people were waiting on hospital trolleys at University Hospital Limerick. Today there are 50. This is unacceptable and puts patients and staff at unnecessary risk. Last week the University of Limerick Hospitals Group was forced to reduce scheduled procedures drastically as nearly 200 staff at both University Hospital Limerick and Ennis Hospital tested positive for Covid-19 or were deemed to have been close contacts of positive cases. As as result, six wards were closed. Figures obtained by the Irish Patients Association show that, on average, the full capacity protocol was deployed at University Hospital Limerick every second day of the year until the end of September. This would be bad enough at the best of times, but in the middle of a public health crisis this level of failure is totally unacceptable.

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