Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

With the greatest of respect to the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, the Minister for Health should be here. I realise he is a very busy man but what is happening in the hospital in Galway, which we call a crisis, is not a crisis; it is a chronic problem that has been going on for a very long time. In 2015, former Taoiseach Enda Kenny said it was not fit for purpose.

That sentence has been repeated ad nauseamby just about every Minister who has visited University Hospital Galway. What is the latest focus of the problem in Galway? Four nurses have resigned and left their positions because it is unsafe. We have learned of their resignations from reports in the media, which is interesting. We have not been informed of this by management.

I know the subject is extremely serious. However, I am reminded of Russian dolls when I think about the hospital in Galway. We have an emergency department, ED, that is not fit for purpose, and because of this, there are plans to build a new department, but it will not be delivered until some time in 2026. In the meantime, there will be a temporary emergency department, but it will not be delivered until 2022, with a temporary department serving as an enabling works project, facilitating the department that will be delivered some time in 2026. If that were not enough layers of the Russian doll, there is also a temporary temporary emergency department within it for Covid and non-Covid patients. Four nurses have left their positions. Dr. Fergal Hickey, the president of the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine, stated yesterday that all of the emergency departments in the west of Ireland are unsafe. Imagine that for a statement. Dr. Hickey has spoken of the lack of staff. In University Hospital Galway, there are 250 vacant nursing positions. I am standing here and I have difficulty in believing what I am saying. The hospital needs 250 staff. We know this from reports in the press, and from the nurses and the doctors, but not from management.

Dr. Hickey, who is a specialist in emergency medicine at Sligo General Hospital, has repeatedly spoken out. He spoke out again yesterday. However, I refer to a statement he made in 2017. He said that up to 350 people would die in the following year if the situation did not improve in the health service. Yesterday, he said that the department is unsafe. The staff and the INMO have said it is unsafe. Dr. Hickey said on the radio yesterday that staff have to search for space, whether it is a cubicle or a chair, in the emergency departments to treat patients. Can you imagine that? University Hospital Galway is supposed to be a centre of excellence. I have been corrected in that and have been told that it is only a centre of excellence for cancer care. Can you imagine these type of distinctions being made in a public hospital?

What am I asking for? I am asking for the Minister for Health to take a hands-on approach in relation to the hospital in Galway. I have documentation in front of me demonstrating the attempts made to elicit details of the problems and the positive steps that can be taken. There are plans upon plans, but the emergency department is positively dangerous. It is no reflection on the staff. The nurses have said that. Usually, nurses put up with things, work their 12-hour shifts and do not complain. They are complaining not just on their own behalf, but on behalf of the patients who are needlessly suffering and dying in the 21st century in a hospital that is supposed to be a centre of excellence.

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