Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I would like to thank the Regional Group for this important and timely debate on emergency services. I commend the emergency services, which continue to provide everybody with emergency cover. We all have emergencies during one part of our lives. The services do a crucial job in protecting us and our families and friends. That has to continue.

The pandemic has thrown up a significant number of challenges with healthcare. During the pandemic, emergency services, paramedics and the fire brigade were pinned to their collar in terms of the challenges they were up against.

The Minister will understand that response times are absolutely critical in order to achieve better outcomes. We would all agree with that. The National Ambulance Service came before the Joint Committee on Health last week, along with the Dublin Fire Brigade. They stated there are major challenges with staff retention across the board in the health service, along with capacity issues and issues that go back decades in terms of resources. They have stated that demand far outstrips supply. In a situation like that, there will be worse outcomes for people who need an ambulance at a particular time. That has to be addressed. The issues identified by the National Ambulance Service and the Dublin Fire Brigade have to be addressed because if we do not have capacity, people will die.

When paramedics and the fire brigade reach an emergency department, there is another issue. The INMO, along with other unions, has stated that there are situations in emergency departments which are not conducive to patient safety or to staff safety. Unions have continuously told the Government that if it does not address these issues, people will die in emergency departments and staff will leave due to being demoralised and burned out. We will have an enormous problem because people with decades of experience will not continue working in that environment. That has to be addressed because otherwise we will be talking about this continuously.

The INMO has said it will go as far as industrial action in the pursuance of staff safety in emergency departments and other hospital departments. It is crucial that we address these issues because if nurses' organisations such as the INMO are saying that they are finding themselves in unsafe situations and environments in hospitals, the alarm bells surely have to ring. We have to address staff retention and underlying issues of capacity.

I have said this many times, and I will say it again: people go to emergency departments because they need medical help. People are waiting on trolleys for hours, and sometimes days, which is not acceptable. I do not know how anybody can find that acceptable. Ireland is a very wealthy country. People have paid tax all of their lives and when they need care at a particular time they have to wait days for it. That is completely dysfunctional and cannot be acceptable. I know the Minister does not accept people having to wait days for care. That is not an exaggeration; it is what has really happened to many people. People are waiting hours and days in emergency departments. In the time the Minister has left in this Administration, it is important that he addresses what the INMO has said about staff and patient safety.

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