Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The number of people who lingered on trolleys in University Hospital Limerick, UHL, last month was 1,561. The figure for the same month last year was 1,498, so the Minister for Health is again breaking records, though not in a good way. The question I wish to put to him, which the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, might relay given the Minister's absence, is a simple one. I want to know what the Minister is going to do to address the crisis in both the immediate and longer terms. I fail to understand what he has done on this issue since becoming Minister in 2020. In 2021 there were 12,106 people on trolleys waiting for care in UHL. However, by 2022 the number had grown to 18,012. The numbers have got worse and worse under the Minister's watch and he and his Government colleagues seem to have no appetite to address them with any sense of urgency. It is worth stating these figures and remembering they are not just statistics. Each of these people and their family members have had to go through the stress of presenting themselves to the hospital to be left waiting on a trolley for days at a time, in some cases. This can only compound the stress and anxiety of a hospital visit.

The Minister has spoken of more capacity to come in UHL. I welcome that construction has begun on the 96-bed unit and that more is scheduled to be done. However, that work must be speeded up. As usual, the facilities are coming too late for many patients at UHL and too late for the hard-working staff of the hospital who work in challenging and often difficult conditions, yet continue to deliver for their patients. I called on the Minister and his predecessor many times to expedite the construction of the initial 96-bed unit and many times they have failed to do that.

The January 2023 trolley figures were less than those of January 2022 because the UHL management team initiated an internal incident procedure that alleviated some of the pressure on the hospital. However, as soon as it was lifted the numbers shot back up again, as expected. The hospital presentations in the last week of December 2022 were not presentations that came out of the blue. They had been predicted, yet there were no steps taken to manage them in advance. We knew there was going to be a problem around December and January. The winter plan was announced far too late and over the course of the winter crisis of December and January we saw 45,000 hospital appointments cancelled across the State. This is an incredible number and just like the high numbers of people being treated on trolleys, it demonstrates there are massive capacity issues in our hospitals. Of the 45,000 cancellations, some 7,656 were appointments for children.

The Taoiseach, who is a former Minister for Health, visited UHL earlier this month. I appreciate him doing this because it was something I had called for many times. However, he came and left with no commitments as to how he and the current Minister will end this crisis. It is not just capacity in the hospital that is needed, though that is needed urgently. There has also been a failure to increase capacity in primary and community care. If such capacity was in place, hospital overcrowding and mass outpatient cancellations could be avoided. Capacity issues are rife across hospital services. There are children with mental health challenges who have been waiting years to be seen by child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. People who need elective procedures are being informed that they will be waiting years for procedures to address issues such as cataracts.

As the Minister of State is standing in, I advise him that across the State we need at least 800 additional hospital and community recovery beds to be put in place this year. The planning and procurement need to happen now and to be speeded up. The people of the mid-west need to see results now. It was only last month that 11,000 people protested in Limerick about the dire state of the health service in the mid-west region. How much longer do people in my city need to wait to see this Government supporting them and ensuring they receive safe and timely health care when they visit our local hospital?

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