Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State but the senior Minister for Health really should be here when we are talking about University Hospital Limerick, UHL, because it is a massive issue, as she will be well aware. I raised this issue in the previous Dáil whenever I could and I also raised it with the Tánaiste last week. There seems to be a problem in our hospital. One always knows there is a big problem when the nurses ask for someone to do something. They have asked the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, to do an inspection. I reiterate my support for that call. That needs to be done as a matter of urgency. There is an ongoing crisis with trolleys and waiting. Everyone tells me that once they get through the emergency department and into the hospital, the staff are fantastic and that they get a very good service. They are very pleased with that but families are being put under stress. The past year has been very difficult for people. As a result of Covid, families cannot visit or be with people in the hospitals.

I want to put some information on the record. The figures this year are stark. In January, there were 949 people on trolleys in the middle of a pandemic; 914 in February; 1,059 in March; 1,020 in April; and 420 in May to date. This is off the scale, even compared to last year when many people did not go to the emergency department because of the pandemic. Today might be considered a good day in that only 35 people are on trolleys but that is 35 families who were affected. One day last week, there were 75 people on trolleys.

We need an intervention. A modular unit was recently opened. It was supposed to be a panacea that would help fix the issue. It did not do so. We did not expect it to. There is a 96-bed unit in progress. We need to know where it is at. Is it going to be expedited? We were all shocked to hear the HSE's recent statement that only half of those beds would be delivered, rather than 96 new beds. We need to make sure we get the 96 new beds. The amalgamation of the three hospitals, those in Nenagh, Ennis and Limerick, is at the root of this problem, which has been ongoing for a number of years. It needs to be addressed.

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