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

This debate is about waiting lists and the Minister will not be surprised that I am raising the situation at University Hospital Limerick. Today, unfortunately, an incredible 90 people were on trolleys there. Every day in February, there were 50-plus people on trolleys, which is a record number. The hospital, unfortunately, has broken records all through last month for having the highest number of patients on trolleys in any hospital in any month since records were established. The figures are truly shocking.

When the Minister visited the hospital recently, I called him out for not having spoken to the unions there. They were very disappointed he did not listen to what they had to say, rather than just listening to the management. I have visited the hospital on a number of occasions, including a recent visit with Deputy Cullinane during which we met senior clinicians, the CEO and others. It is under huge pressure from the numbers accessing it. It is the major hospital not just for Limerick but also Clare and north Tipperary, as well as people from north Kerry.

There are multiple reasons for the overcrowding at the hospital. Deputy Cullinane mentioned the issue of people having difficulties in getting access to GPs, which is something that is becoming increasingly problematic in Limerick city. In some cases, people are going to hospital when they do not need to because they cannot access a GP. That needs to be sorted out too.

Some of the promises made in respect of University Hospital Limerick will not be delivered for years, as the Minister well knows. The new 90-bed unit will, in fact, deliver only 48 beds and there has, as yet, been no full commitment to deliver the facility. Building has not commenced and some of the actions that need to be taken, such as moving out patients who are recovering but still need care, have not been done. There are, by and large, no step-down packages for those patients. Some 8,000 home care hours have been approved and assigned for people in the Limerick area but there are no staff to provide them. That is another problem.

This situation cannot continue. It would have been useful for the Minister to have met the unions when he visited the hospital. I encourage him to do so, even if it is by way of a Zoom meeting. We need accurate lists, with monthly updates published on the number of patients added to or removed from lists. This is necessary to ensure an integrated and collaborative healthcare system across primary, community and acute services at a regional level. We need to know exactly how many people are in hospitals, how many are waiting for treatment and how many cannot access a GP. We have all had people coming to our constituency offices to ask about children who are waiting many months for appointments with child psychologists for assessments, with no timeframe given. It is absolutely ridiculous that people have to come to their local Deputy to put in a parliamentary question to the Minister for Health in an effort to access basic health services that are urgently needed.

The longer the Minister awaits to address these issues, the worse the outcome will be. We need to get our house in order. We cannot go on as we are and the situation at University Hospital Limerick, notwithstanding the really good job being done by staff in difficult circumstances, is shaming all of us.

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