Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to see that the Minister and the Minister of State are here. I thank them for staying on.

I am calling this evening for an investigation into the non-reporting of incidents at University Hospital Limerick, UHL, despite calls continually being made to stop the practice. Staff are unable to put incidents on Q-Pulse because this immediately triggers a response from management as to the origin of the incident, instead it being dealt with in a proper and professional manner as it is supposed to be done. This is not my first time to raise this matter. I know that the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, has been in Limerick. I met him there when he was announcing a new unit. Management personnel in University Hospital Waterford have been praised tonight for the work they are carrying out there. It is with a heavy heart that I have to come up here to talk about UHL. I know that many of the medical staff there are in desperation because of what they see happening to the hospital in which they work.

People who have worked for years to care for people are now leaving their positions. The roll-over of staff in emergency services shows the Minister what is happening. People have worked in emergency services for five or ten years, but are now leaving because they feel they cannot stay any longer as it is affecting their health and that of their families due to the fact they are coming home worn down and feel they have not done enough to protect the people in hospital.

The recruitment of staff is one issue, but retention of staff who have been there for years and want to stay but have left because they have no faith in the management of the hospital is another. We saw what happened in England when independent investigations were done outside of the hospital structure, which here is the HSE. Independent investigations which do not have past or current HSE staff on investigation boards are needed. Issues were highlighted in England and prosecutions were brought. The same needs to happen in UHL.

I have spoken of one case, Jessica Sheedy, an 18-year-old girl who died in UHL. The investigation into her death has been going on for more than three years. Parts of the report have been changed four or five times and the family still have not learned the real facts. The family want to make sure, in the name of Jessica, that no other family goes through what they went through. They want lessons to be learned and mistakes, if they were made, to be rectified for the protection of other people who go to the hospital and staff. If a staff member feels that he or she cannot put something on Q-Pulse because management will target them for doing so, how will anyone learn? I ask the Minister and Minister of State to address this. I would be the first to stand up and praise anyone who can help UHL fix the management structure in place there.

Last week I heard from a woman in her 70s who fell and cut her leg. She contacted a GP who was not working. She contacted Shannondoc and was told it was not open. She contacted the hospital which said it would send out her an ambulance, which brought her in. There was no doctor on duty at night to see her. She sat in the waiting room with her daughter and then her son came in. At 4 a.m. the son got mad and asked the staff to do something. A trainee doctor asked if he could take a picture of the woman's leg to send it to a senior doctor as he was only a trainee. Only a trainee doctor was on call, which is not fair to the trainee, staff or patients.

I beg the Minister and Minister of State to investigate the management structure in the hospital. I would be the first person to praise them if they could help to stabilise and help the staff report incidents and ensure they are examined properly in order to save lives.

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