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

I also support the amendment. We have been talking about high-profile cases, and we have mentioned the case of Jessica Sheehy before. This is a high-profile case that has been going on over three years that has not been dealt with. People are making complaints, as the Deputies have said. There was a petition signed not so long ago in regard to 15,490 people on trolleys in Limerick in 2022. The figures were calculated by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation. What scares me is that the research indicates that one of every 82 people who are on trolleys or in chairs for more than five hours will die. One of every 72 people who are on trolleys or in chairs for between six and 12 hours will die. People ring us on a daily basis to complain about different services and clinicians and state that they did not get the proper care. I appreciate that certain things have changed, but this is not good enough, particularly when individuals in the medical profession are asking us to ensure that people have a proper framework to allow them to make complaints. Not only is that the case for patients and their relatives, it is also the case for health workers. The latter should be able to make complaints, through their own reporting systems, in respect of the safety of their patients.

HIQA came into University Hospital Limerick and looked at the situation. A reporter said that there should be no more patients on trolleys there. If officials from HIQA were able, as is the case with nursing homes, to go into the hospital on spec tonight, they would see people on trolleys in the wards because the staff have been told to keep them out of the accident and emergency department in order to keep the numbers down. This is being done because of the media presence in the hospital. People on trolleys have been moved into wards and nursing staff have indicated that this is not safe. We have to listen to the medical professionals. People have to have the right to voice the concerns of their loved ones in hospitals. They must be able to make complaints and there must be a process of accountability. There has to be accountability when this is affecting people's lives.

I will not delay on this point any longer, but I have one more instance to highlight. I am aware of a case involving a patient who was on a trolley and who needed oxygen. The oxygen was in a canister. It was necessary to get a porter to come and change the unit. The patient died while waiting for this to happen. That was because the hospital did not have the proper oxygen available through the plug-in system. The patient died on a trolley while waiting for oxygen in a hospital. Patients have to have the right to complain and the mechanism to learn how to fix these problems. Until this incidents are reported by means a proper process, no lessons will be learned. It all comes back to accountability and structures.

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