Dáil debates

Thursday, 25 March 2021

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme (Health): Statements

 

10:30 am

Photo of Fergus O'DowdFergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The battle against Covid-19 has been fought very successfully on the front line in our acute hospitals up and down the country. Facts have been brought to my attention and perhaps the Minister can contradict them if I have been given the wrong information. There will be 138 fewer new interns, that is, doctors working on the ground, than there were this time last year. That will have a significant adverse impact in fighting Covid-19 and, indeed, as the numbers increase in our hospitals, on other services that people cannot avail of now. Hospitals such Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda, which I am particularly concerned about, could lose three or four intern places. Can the Minister address this question, please?

I welcome in the Minister’s statement, which nobody else acknowledged, the reference to the work that has been done in vaccinating elderly people in their homes and, indeed, in institutional care. The reduction in serious illness and deaths in our nursing homes is remarkable. Too many people have died in our nursing homes. There is major concern about homes such as Dealgan House. There is a need for an inquiry to establish exactly what happened there.

The programme for Government commits to a statutory scheme for home and community care under which people will have an entitlement to care in their homes rather than in institutions. People are going into institutions now because they do not have a choice in many cases. What advance has been made in the provision of statutory and high-quality home care that is well-regulated and well-paid?

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