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

As we speak, 74 people are on trolleys in University Hospital Limerick, UHL. This is the lowest number there has been for the whole month of October. The average is 100 people a day on trolleys. It is an absolute disgrace. The budget gives no comfort that the issue will be addressed. In the round, the budget lacked ambition and neglected the core issues of health and housing. It was a budget focused on short-term one-off measures, and these highlights tried and failed to give the Government cover in its failings in health and housing. Those in opposition have known this for some time and it now appears that Government colleagues do too. It is clearly demonstrated by the failure of the recent budget to invest properly in healthcare. It is a case of not wanting to throw good money after bad. It seems the Government has thrown in the towel when it comes to health. It has definitely abandoned the people of Limerick and the mid-west who need to use the emergency department at UHL.

I will focus my comments on UHL. It needs investment in capacity and staffing. It is consistently the hospital with the highest number of people treated on trolleys and in hallways. Last week in an article by Bernie English the Limerick Postreported that it had been doing a survey and UHL had spent 100 days as the hospital with the highest number of trolleys in the State. Elective procedures are cancelled regularly in order that the numbers presenting at the emergency department can be managed. Patients in the hospital are stacked cheek by jowl in corridors and on trolleys.

Recently I had the misfortune to be in the emergency department with a relative. I witnessed at first hand the chaos that goes on. Trolleys were bashing off each other. I saw a patient being injured. I saw complete overcrowding, with trolleys everywhere and medicine supplies in hallways. I saw elderly people abandoned in trolleys and left to languish for hours on end because the medical staff were too busy to check on them. There are simply not enough staff there.

With each passing year, the numbers treated on trolleys at UHL increases. Last year 18,012 people were treated on trolleys. This exceeded the 2021 figure. As of today we have had 17,271 people on trolleys in 2023 and we are only halfway through October. We will surpass last year's figure and probably will hit a figure of 20,000 people, which will be a disgrace. In September 2,174 people were on trolleys and it was the worst month ever but it looks as though October will, unfortunately, surpass it.

We can get lost in these figures and statistics but behind each one of the 2,174 patients on trolleys in September is a person with friends, families and loved ones who are deeply worried about him or her when he or she attends a hospital. Attending hospital is daunting in its own right but to be placed on a trolley compounds the worry for the person and their family members. Being in a hallway offers no dignity or privacy to a patient. It is simply unfair and not safe for patients or staff. We know from figures that the longer someone is on a trolley and not in a bed, the higher the chance that person will pass away. Treating someone in such a space makes the job of our health professionals all the more difficult.

We know there is a need for investment in healthcare. There is a need to invest to ensure the delivery of new beds. It is also crucial to invest in the recruitment of additional staff as our nurses and other healthcare professionals are spread too thin. Yes, there is a commitment to deliver a 96-bed unit at UHL. As the Minister knows, in real terms this unit will deliver only 48 additional beds. It is welcome but it is far too little and will open far too late. Will we even be able to staff it, given the lack of staff we have at present?

The Government seems to have given up on health. We are in the unique position today that the Minister is here when I am speaking about UHL. He is not here when I raise it as a Topical Issue. The Government's approach to health has been haphazard and incomplete. The most recent budget made this abundantly clear. It is demonstrated by the reduction in moneys directed towards new measures. The 2024 budget committed €100 million to new measures, which is €150 million less than the previous year's budget. This year there was a surplus, some of which could and should have been used to invest properly in our health service. It is patients and healthcare professionals who will pay the price. The budget was an opportunity to make a difference to the lives of patients and healthcare professionals. It was an opportunity to announce new funding for the delivery of 1,500 promised hospital beds, of which we have seen nothing.

It was an opportunity to accept and address the challenges facing those with mental health illnesses, yet no new funding was provided in this area. It was an opportunity to provide funding for new medicines and to help patients who struggle with the cost of their medicines, yet there was very little funding for this purpose. Even rudimentary measures, such as reducing parking fees in hospitals, were not considered or provided for. It is the patients, their families and hospital staff who suffer the impacts of failures in the budget.

The Minister does not have to take my word for this. Let us consider the pronouncements from the professionals in the field. The Irish Hospital Consultants Association, IHCA, stated that the budget allocation is insufficient to address the decades-long public hospital capacity deficits that are the root cause of the unacceptable public hospital waiting lists. The Irish Medical Organisation described the budget as a missed opportunity to meet demand, while the IHCA said that not enough capital funding had been provided to open previously promised beds and theatre capacity. I would love to go on, but I have run out of time.

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