Dáil debates
Wednesday, 15 June 2022
Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate
Hospital Services
9:22 am
Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source
Baineann mo cheist le barda Naomh Monica in Ospidéal na hOllscoile, Gaillimh. Tá sé dúnta anois le beagnach trí mhí agus gan focal ón ospidéal maidir le cén fáth go raibh sé dúnta, nó fiú go raibh sé dúnta. Bhí orm an cheist a ardú sa Dáil coicís ó shin. Tá mé fós ag fanacht ar fhreagra ón Aire. Fuair mé freagra ón ospidéal seachtain tar éis mo cheiste a bheith curtha agam. Is ceisteanna bunúsacha iad seo. Cén fáth an raibh an barda dúnta? Cén uair a bheidh sé oscailte arís? Cad mar gheall ar na hothair? Sin an cheist is tábhachtaí. Seo 2022 agus cailleadh Savita Halappanavar in 2012. Tá straitéis náisiúnta máithreachais againn agus tá muid ag déanamh beag is fiú den straitéis sin.
I must raise the issue of St. Monica's ward in University Hospital Galway, UHG. I heard that it was closed for three weeks. I decided to write to the hospital's management and ask it some basic questions about when it closed, why it was closed, when it was going to reopen and, most importantly, what the implications were for the patients on the main gynaecology ward of UHG, which serves approximately 1 million people from Donegal to Galway. The Minister of State is familiar with the hospital.
Savita Halappanavar died in 2012. Her death and the deaths of many other women - significantly, until Deputy Martin Browne entered the Chamber, all of the representatives on the floor were female, but this matter is of concern to us all, including the male Deputies - were never to happen again, so we developed a national maternity strategy. Here we have UHG's main ward closed, though.
When I got answers, I found out that it had been closed since March. Was the Minister of State aware of that? She can answer me later, but the Minister was certainly not aware of it, and neither were people in Galway. People are contacting Deputies at their peril, terrified that something might happen to them. We call them "whistleblowers" when all they are doing is making basic facts known to us. I found out to my horror that the ward had been closed since 23 March. I am told that it will not be reopening, although it is not put in that way. The hospital's management gave me no date because the hospital has no staff. It does not tell me what staff the hospital does not have or what the management has done to address this issue since March. The management tells me that there are no consequences to the closure, which begs the question as to why the ward was necessary in the first place.
I will put this in perspective. The person involved has given me permission to read out this correspondence. I will not use her name: "I heard you on [the local radio] and I was so upset to hear that the HSE has told you that the closure of the main Gyne ward in UHG has had no impact on care well let me tell you my story." She does this in four very short lines, at the start of which she gives her name and says that she had an operation elsewhere, after which she took ill at home and was brought by ambulance to UHG. She continues:
The harrowing scenes we then witnessed in the Emergency Surgical Unit were beyond distressing.
I then waited 3 nights on a trolley after major surgery before I could be given a bed in St Angela's [this is one of the two wards identified for use while St. Monica's ward is closed]. Every day I heard o we'll have a bed today for you. I was admitted on [Tuesday at 1.30 a.m.] and did not get a bed until that Friday evening at 6.30pm.
It is unusual for me to read out something, but when I was trying to digest the answer and see where the meaning was, that brought it home that this is spin. It is unacceptable that this is the reality. I spoke to that person and she said she witnessed patients on the ground with blankets over them. I will leave it to the Minister of State to answer.
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