Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is an important motion, which I fully support. Down through the years we have fought bravely to keep services in Bantry General Hospital which looks after the people of Cork South-West and south Kerry and does so excellently. I pay tribute to the hospital staff.

However, we are fighting to keep services there. We are fighting every day of the week to have endoscopy and stroke units built. As I have stated in the Dáil time and again, if a block was laid for each time a Government Deputy told the House that an endoscopy unit was going to be built in Bantry hospital, five or six units would have been built long ago, yet there is none. I do not even have an opening date. I do not have a date for the start of the stroke unit, yet there has been announcement after announcement. The then Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, came down to west Cork last August and made a famous announcement. Within days, though, we found out that the mental health unit was being decreased from 18 beds to 11. Now it is being called a success story because the number is only decreasing to 15. In a shockingly difficult time for people when mental health is a major issue throughout the country, the Government is decreasing bed numbers in the only mental health unit west of Cork city.

People are travelling from south Kerry and west Cork to CUH for medical procedures. CUH is an overcrowded bottleneck. There is nothing wrong with its staff - they are top class and under immense pressure - but most of these procedures could be carried out in Bantry General Hospital. The Government has decided to turn its back on small hospitals, though, as well as on pharmacies that could carry out some procedures. I recently had a procedure carried out. I had to go as far as Clonakilty because Bantry General Hospital could not perform it even though it was a simple procedure. The hospital was medically capable of performing the procedure, but its insurance would not cover it. The local doctor in the Clonakilty Medical Clinic looked after me. In fairness to him, he was not even my doctor.

When the overnight accident and emergency unit at Bantry hospital was being discussed in 2009, the then Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, said he did not see a need to save it. Unfortunately, 67% of patients were attending after 8 p.m. Accident and emergency services at Bantry close overnight and CUH is crowded. This is the crisis we have in this country. The Government let the small hospitals go.

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