Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for his update on the work of the NESC. One of the five areas on which NESC is strategically advising the Taoiseach is aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic. We are all conscious that a lack of hospital bed capacity was one of the key reasons our lockdowns had to be so extensive in order to protect bed capacity in hospitals. We see reports that the emergency department in Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan, is to be closed. Has sufficient capacity been put in place in Drogheda hospital to ensure we do not see the repeat of the overcrowding we have seen in University Hospital Limerick, which I heard about on a recent visit?

Last week in my constituency, I heard from a constituent who told me of their family member’s experience in St. Vincent’s University Hospital where the person had to sit on a chair for two days while enduring the agony of appendicitis. Another person contacted my office last about a relative who was suffering with early symptoms of sepsis having developed blood poisoning, and who sat in a chair into the early hours of the morning semi-lucid and propped upright against a wall. It is a reasonable expectation for those people and their relatives that hospitals would be able to provide beds to every patient in need of care. Has NESC advised on the additional capacity we need to put in place to ensure people are not facing these sorts of waiting times in hospitals?

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