Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Regional Group on bringing forward this incredibly important and thorough motion and thank Deputy Sherlock and the Labour Party for sharing time with me.

Why is pre-emergency care so important for people living in rural communities? It is because they struggle with access to primary healthcare in their communities. They are the ones who have been losing GPs for the past number of years. For example, in my constituency of Clare, the number of GPs available is 25 below the national average. That is according to figures from the Clare Public Participation Network. As the Minister of State knows, this is not a new phenomenon. The GPs who are still in situare inundated with huge levels of demand and people are waiting for appointments. Some people even have to travel great distances to bring their own blood samples to the hospitals themselves as they cannot get appointments on time. On more than one occasion, my office has had to call GPs outside the county for emergency appointments for constituents who were in need. This is not what a modern European society should be like.

As the Minister of State will appreciate, what is not mentioned here are the stress, anger and frustration felt by families and the burden and fear that my constituents live with, not knowing whether they will be able to get an ambulance or, worse, if an ambulance will get to them before time runs out.

What about the question of confidence in our health service infrastructure? Presentations to UHL declined after the horror that was the Christmas period not because people stopped getting sick, but because people were too scared to roll the dice and step into that warzone. I heard the Taoiseach reassuring people that they should not fear UHL. When he said this, it was clear that he is a Deputy for a Dublin constituency. However, the good people of Clare need more than words by way of reassurance. They need a commitment that accident and emergency services will be reinstated in Ennis as part of a model 3 hospital to complement UHL in Dooradoyle, which is a model 4 hospital. As the Minister knows, ours is the only region not to have a model 3 hospital. That fact is not lost on the people of Clare. I hear it in my clinics and in calls with my constituents every single day. The people of Clare are fighting for their lives.

The introduction of the Ennis MAU pathway, whereby a small number of patients were brought to Ennis hospital to tackle the overcrowding at UHL, seemed like a positive move. However, as time went on it was clear that no additional resources had been provided to Ennis hospital to support this. In addition, it has directly impacted elective surgeries, with many now being pushed back by months. Those delayed surgeries will lead to more people needing unscheduled care arising from non-treatment of their issues. To date I have been stonewalled by the Department with respect to information I have requested on this.

On the point of the reporting of figures, I submitted 11 parliamentary questions over the course of a week in November to try to ascertain the true picture of ambulance care in my constituency. I was told that there were no data available because the NAS did not view response times by county as a key performance indicator. As a representative of a county of more than 127,000 people, the only key performance indicator I care about is their ability to access care in a timely manner. If anything is taken from my contribution, I hope it is that the Minister needs to address this as a matter of urgency.

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