Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Hospitals are under enormous pressure. Chronic overcrowding means constant chaos in emergency departments. We are all painfully aware of the year-round crisis, which sees hundreds of patients suffer the indignity of lying on trolleys. More than 600 people were on trolleys in our hospitals yesterday; the number is 528 today.

However, a not so visible but real consequence of overcrowding is the soaring level of hospital appointment cancellations. On the watch of this Government last year, 250,000 hospital appointments were cancelled, which is a record. In each case that represented a phone call to somebody who had waited with worry to be told that the care they needed had been cancelled. Some 800 chemotherapy appointments for children were cancelled.

Cancer touches all of us in some way during our lives. When somebody receives a cancer diagnosis, the world stands still. In that moment, life comes to a shuddering halt as all of the possibilities hit at once and the long hard road to be travelled then opens up in a flash. When a child receives such a diagnosis, these feelings are amplified beyond what most of us could even contemplate. A cancer diagnosis for a child must be utterly devastating for a family. The instinct of any parent in that situation is to go to the ends of the earth to care for their child. A parent wants to know that the system has got their child, that the system will catch them and that the system has their back. Let us just imagine the cancellation of a child's chemotherapy appointment. This is the cancellation of an appointment that a parent knows is a big part of their child's fight.

The Government has to stop this happening. To stop the problem of cancellations, the Government must solve chronic overcrowding created by the its policy. Any of us who have seen the dedication of doctors and nurses caring for cancer patients are literally blown away. They live and breathe for their patients but we need more of them. We do not have enough healthcare staff right across the system. Dr. Peadar Gilligan of University Hospital Limerick said it most clearly: "There are simply not enough of us to deliver the ever-increasing needs of the population, yet we have an ongoing recruitment freeze imposed by the HSE due to lack of funding from Government.” That is it.

This dire situation is reflected in hospitals across the State. Overcrowding is linked directly to the lack of beds in the system. The Government has been told this repeatedly by professional bodies, patient groups and ordinary people themselves. Capacity is a big problem. Tá na hospidéil ró-phlódaithe go dona. De bharr sin bhí 800 coinne ceimiteiripe curtha ar ceal do pháistí anuraidh. Tá fíor-athrú inár seirbhísí sláinte ag teastáil go dona. We need a change of direction. Fine Gael have been in government for 13 years and for far too long. More of the same will not cut it. Our health services is crying out for change. To ensure that no child's chemotherapy appointment is cancelled due to a crisis in the system, the Government has to increase bed capacity. We need 3,000 additional hospital and community beds and well the Taoiseach knows it.

Then, crucially, we need to end the recruitment embargo imposed by the Government to relieve pressure on hospitals and to ensure that sick and sometimes very sick people get the care they need.

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