Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2022 was published on 16 August on the Houses of the Oireachtas website. The Bill seeks to amend existing legislation in respect of registration-related issues which affect certain cohorts of registrants with the Medical Council and the health and social care professionals council, CORU.

I know that the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, is not here but I thank him. I talked last week in my budget speech about getting neurologist nurses, especially in respect of Parkinson's disease. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, was very much involved in that also, and I acknowledge that 100% because this is a fight that has been going on for many years by those who suffer Parkinson's in particular and who had no nurse. I assure the Minister of State that it is money well spent. It will save money in the long run in respect of people who had no help and no one to talk to. Now, it is to be hoped that Parkinson's sufferers will have one-to-one, direct contact with specialist nurses. I thank Tony Wilkinson from west Cork. The Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, have probably met him on many occasions. He has been outside the gates of the Dáil with me over recent years and inside in the audiovisual room on several occasions fighting for the cause. He is after being nominated for the Cork volunteer of the year award. I think he has won it, rather than being nominated, so I congratulate him. He fully deserves that because, while he is a Parkinson's sufferer himself, he has given his time freely down through the years to others. He has been their nurse, even though he is not a professional nurse. He has been the person they go to, talk to and seek advice from.

While we are talking about professional healthcare workers who take care of us, I am still getting emails and phone calls from people who are supposed to receive the €1,000 recognition payment, which is a fair bit of a mess. The payment went to many of the workers directly employed by the HSE in hospitals but has not gone to those working in nursing homes and many more sectors. They have not got that €1,000. I heard the Minister for Health say a couple of weeks ago that this needs to be resolved but, sadly, it has not been. In some cases, in some hospitals, many improvements still need to be made. Maybe it is not fair to pick a case, but I got a call this morning from a friend or family member of a constituent, a young person, who is in Cork University Hospital, CUH, after major bowel surgery last week. Her treatment there, I am told, has been appalling. She has no call bell, they have forgotten to give her pain relief and they put her in a room with a Covid patient. She had breathing difficulties all weekend, and now there is a clot in her lung. Would you believe that her husband had to ring the hospital over the weekend to get a nurse to her room, and her bedclothes were not changed for three days? I would suggest that all is not well in the system. I think many staff in hospitals are massively overworked and under pressure. When you are sick, you are sick, and that is the only time you call on the system, and it fails.

While the Minister of State is here, I will ask her the same question I asked the Taoiseach more than once last week, when I did not get a very clear answer. I asked him for a cast-iron guarantee that the seven beds in the mental health unit in Bantry General Hospital would not be lost. The HSE has appealed the decision the Mental Health Commission made. That will go to some district court. At the same time, there will be some improvements, or so the HSE has told us, but the question is, when the improvements are finished, will there be 18 beds in the mental health unit in Bantry General Hospital? I am disappointed that the Taoiseach and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, were in Bantry General Hospital and went to the medical side of the hospital, which is fabulous and top-class, but both of them walked past the mental health unit. They will say that we have to give people respect and their privacy, but we cannot afford to lose one bed there. I am looking for a cast-iron guarantee. I looked for it from the Taoiseach last week and did not get it.

We talk about pharmacists. One thing I know about pharmacists is that they are willing to do a lot more. We are told that the doctors are overstretched and that there are no more doctors coming into rural places, but the pharmacists are willing to do a lot more work and they have not been given it. I do not know why. I could keep going for another hour but I will conclude.

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