Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

No. I have been in business all my life and the one thing I have always said is that you have to have a management structure. I want to know why the hospital system has changed so much. When I was in Barrington's Hospital as a young lad, which is now a private hospital, a patient was released no later than 11 a.m. If that patient was not well enough to be released by then, he or she stayed in. The structure of the bed system meant the patient stayed in until the following morning when rounds were done by doctors and consultants and, if the patient was fit and well enough, he or she was released. I receive reports day after day from the hospital system of people being released at 7 a.m., 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

The system is completely wrong. It is a management system and not a front-line care system. All public hospitals need to introduce a system whereby a patient who is not released by 11 a.m. is not released at all. In that way, those working in front-line services are given the chance to go to the computer to check whether they have five beds free on a given floor and will know what they have. There will not then be nurses ringing upstairs and downstairs to see if a bed is free for somebody who needs it. That is where the chaos arises. It is a management and structural problem and not one of front-line staff. That change has not happened.

I am in the Dáil for almost two years, I have been asking for this structure over that time and it still has not happened. I want the Minister of State to tell the hospitals that this is the structure that must be implemented. Not only will beds be released by 11 a.m., front-line staff who have to prepare those beds for the next patients will be given a chance to return beds to the ward by 1 p.m. and nurses will then know that they can manage their hospital. That is a structure. If that structure was introduced, it would take the stress and anxiety away from nurses and healthcare workers trying to make sure that people are in beds. It would also relieve the trolley crisis.

I have seen people waiting in hospitals for two days to see a consultant. When they came out, after meeting a consultant, they got huge bills from their insurance companies, which they had to sign if they did not sign them in the hospitals. They refused to sign until they saw the huge costs in those bills for waiting and taking up a bed from a person who could have been terminally ill, or very sick, and waiting to get into hospital. That person was left on a trolley downstairs while the insured person waited for a consultant to see them in the public system. I want the help of the Minister of State, the Minister and the Government with this.

I support what is being done in this Bill. When supports are being put in, I support them. At this stage, the issue is bigger than this Bill. It is about the waste of money, waste of people's time and waste of bed units. We can help people, front-line staff and hospitals with a structure, but not until we get the CEOs and management structure right and audited. If a person is in a job and is not doing it properly, he or she should be removed. Let us put in somebody who can manage the structure. I will do whatever I can to help implement this, but I want a commitment from the Government that it will honestly look at it. I see this issue as the biggest reason our nurses are leaving some of our public hospitals. I have checked other public hospitals where nurses are not leaving. It is because a structure is in place whereby they can do their job, and help and care for people, without the stress of trying to manage and run a hospital with no structure.

I ask for the Minister of State's help to help me get the right people in place, including the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, to audit the CEOs of the hospitals. I said that I am disappointed that I have to stand in the Chamber as a Limerick Deputy and say that University Hospital Limerick has one of the highest waiting times in the country, which has been the case for a number of years. Covid is not causing this situation. Every other public hospital has the same issues with Covid. University Hospital Limerick has a management and structural problem. I ask every Deputy and Minister to help put a structure in place and audit the management of our public hospitals.

If any public hospital has gone above and beyond and has an excellent structure, let us introduce that into Limerick and fix the problem there. That is what I am asking for. Let us stop people coming to the Chamber to complain about the front-line service. It is not the front line; it is the structure. I ask for the Minister of State's help.

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