Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the health aspect of this agenda, I wish to raise the incessant overcrowding and trolley usage at University Hospital Limerick, UHL, week in, week out. There is yet another inquiry, and I expect its outcome will again indicate that far too many people are funnelled through the same hospital system. When the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, visited the hospital on 17 February last, he stated UHL was doing too much heavy lifting in the mid-west. Surely, the answer to this is not just within the curtilage of UHL; the solution to the healthcare crisis in the mid-west lies with Ennis, Nenagh and St. John’s hospitals. These hospitals need to have the capacity to discharge out of hours. I am aware of a scenario in which a patient who was feeling quite well, and whom the nurses said was feeling quite well, on a Friday evening could not be discharged until Monday. That is bed blocking. It is blocking by policy and the mechanics of the hospital institution. We need to have the capacity to let people go home, if they are well enough to do so, on an out-of-hours basis.

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