Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Two days is how long the son of pharmacist Niall O’Sullivan waited on a trolley in University Hospital Limerick emergency department before receiving treatment for a fracture. Mr. O’Sullivan spoke powerfully of his son's experience on RTÉ radio this morning. This is not the first time I have raised the human impact and dangers of hospital overcrowding with the Minister. We spoke about this just last month. Clearly, nothing has changed in UHL. Indeed, the crisis has worsened, as the Minister has acknowledged, effectively. It is not just UHL and Limerick, however. Another woman with whom I am in contact spent a hellish night last night in Tallaght Hospital. Upon presenting there with pain at 4 o’clock yesterday, she was left in a waiting room until 9 a.m. today with no pain relief or anything. Another family, this time in St. Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin, had a similar ordeal. I heard from a parent who had to prop his daughter against a wall because she had been left waiting on a chair with an injury that developed into blood poisoning. She was propped up because she was dipping in and out of consciousness from pain and exhaustion. Despite that, there was no capacity to give her timely care.

These cases are not isolated. Whether it is UHL, Tallaght Hospital, St. Vincent's University Hospital, Cork University Hospital, St. James's Hospital or anywhere else, every day now, sick people who go to hospital in Ireland seeking treatment are arriving to find that it is just not there for them, largely due to overcrowding. The word that comes up time and again from people who describe their experiences to me is “chaos”. In a hospital, where patients expect to receive care, what they are receiving is chaos. They are subjected to chaos. That is not to mention the nightmare this is causing for healthcare workers. Among the junior doctors and nurses who have contacted me about their experience is a young medic who said he is looking for work in Australia or Dubai. Pay is a factor for him, but what keeps him up at night is his fear around overcrowding and lack of staffing. Because he is so overworked and must often look after more patients than he should be allowed to, he is scared that something will go wrong and that he will be blamed or, indeed, he will blame himself. Healthcare workers, who are providing an essential and heroic service, deserve better than that.

It is a shocking reality that of the ten HIQA reports carried out in Irish hospitals in the last 11 months, not one hospital has been found fully compliant when it comes to staffing. This is at a time when it needs to be all hands on deck here. Instead, what we are seeing is effectively a sinking ship. We know from replies to parliamentary questions my colleague, Deputy Duncan Smith, has received that the HSE is unable to even guarantee that workers on a career break will not be impacted by the recruitment freeze. Yet, each time we mention the freeze, the Government deflects. The Taoiseach says it is not having an impact and that the HSE is hiring. However, it is plain for everyone to see that there are just not enough staff in our hospitals and, therefore, healthcare workers and patients continue to be placed in harm’s way. Can the Minister offer us a substantial reply and not simply say it is desirable to tackle overcrowding and understaffing? How can he stand over a situation where not hospitals are not fully staffed?

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