Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this very important motion to the Chamber. It gives us a chance to highlight some of the needs and deficiencies in our constituencies. In County Kerry, and in Killarney in particular, we have a critical lack of GPs to service the needs of the people across a massive area. Over 4,000 extra people - refugees and asylum seekers - have landed into Killarney in recent months. Many of these refugees are mothers with young children. They need vaccinations and all of the things that children need. Not one extra GP has been dedicated to the town of Killarney. Dr. Gary Stack, Dr. O’Regan and others are under immense pressure. They were under pressure before this current situation because they were short of staff. As a result, more people are being directed to the accident and emergency services in University Hospital Kerry in Tralee. It is having an impact there as well.

I would like to raise a small matter in the context of the accident and emergency department. When people break or fracture a leg or a hand, they are directed by their GP to go for an X-ray. When they go for the X-ray, they are directed back up to the accident and emergency department to be seen by another doctor. This duplication and replication is not needed and is impacting the other people, including elderly people, who are waiting. There is no need for that. When a doctor gives a patient a letter saying that they need an X-ray, that is what they should get. They should not be clogging up the system; they should be given the X-ray.

I welcome the 132-bed hospital for Killarney Community Hospital. I raised this when I was a member of the health board ten or 12 years ago. I honestly feel I was the first to raise this matter at that time. I am glad to see this happen because we have great doctors and nurses in Killarney, Tralee and elsewhere in County Kerry. We need to give them the best modern facilities they need to make their work that bit easier.

We are clogging up the hospitals, including the district hospitals and University Hospital Kerry in Tralee, because of the lack of home help. People are being allocated home help hours but we do not have the people to come out and do the work. I have asked before for some of the refugees who have cars and have good English to be trained up to give them a purpose here. They are able to work like everybody else. I am asking for that to happen because I appreciate that people are very hard to get.

Mental health is a serious problem in our county. People are being let down. I know that suicides happen outside of the medical spectrum - they can happen unavoidably - but many people need additional mental health services, including one-to-one services. It is not good enough. What we saw with CAMHS in south Kerry, where a junior doctor was blamed, is being replicated elsewhere. It is being replicated in north Kerry even though that doctor was not there at all. This issue needs to be dealt with all over the country.

Ambulance cover is being impacted because people are on trolleys. When an ambulance arrives at a hospital and cannot unload the patient, that leaves somewhere else without an ambulance. We have had several instances where sick people have been waiting for over an hour, and for two hours in some places.

I am glad that Deputy Michael Collins and I initiated a system where we take cataract patients up to the North of Ireland. We have operated 106 or 107 buses since December 2017.

I will raise a final issue with the Minister and Minister of State. When someone applies for a medical card and gets it because they are entitled to get it, it should be made effective from the date they applied for it. I am just asking for that to happen because some people let it go and do not look for the medical card until they get sick.

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