Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta. I thank her for raising this very important issue. I join the Ceann Comhairle and the Deputy in welcoming Speaker Poots to Dáil Éireann. It is great to have you here and everyone in this House looks forward to working with you and colleagues and counterparts in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Northern Ireland Executive.

I thank Deputy McDonald for raising this extremely important issue. She alluded to the inquest into the death of Aoife Johnston being in progress and I am very conscious of that. Like the Deputy, I do not wish to say anything to cut across that process. We will certainly all have a lot to say when that process concludes. I express my deepest sympathies, and I know the sympathies of everyone in this House, to the family of Aoife Johnston. I cannot imagine their pain, their grief at the loss of a daughter and sister and the pain they are living with every day. The inquest is ongoing so I will refrain from commenting on that, but as the Deputy knows, the chief executive of the HSE, having considered a report he received into the death of Aoife Johnston, which had very significant findings about the care of Aoife and the operation of the hospital, appointed the former Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Frank Clarke, to conduct a formal investigation. The outcome of that investigation is going to be very important – I am sure we can all agree on that – in informing any further decisions that need to be made. In instigating this investigation the HSE CEO quite rightly apologised unreservedly to Aoife’s family and moved to assure them that any issues raised will be investigated thoroughly, fully and without fear or favour. I add my voice to those sentiments. I understand the HSE expects that report from Mr. Justice Clarke by the end of May, but of course it is important that he has sufficient time to fully complete that work and deliver a good and robust report.

I fully accept that there is a very serious situation at University Hospital Limerick. It would be simply not credible to suggest anything to the contrary, but I need to say that against a backdrop of legitimate questions that need to be asked in terms of the level of investment that has been made in that hospital. Let us look at a number of facts. Staffing at the hospital has grown by over 1,100 since the end of December 2019, or from over 2,800 staff at that time to over 3,900 staff as of the end of February. This is a 42% increase in staffing levels in the hospital. It includes very specifically 161 more doctors, 49 more hospital consultants, 433 more nurses and midwives and 116 more health and social care professionals. University Hospital Limerick now has more emergency department consultants than any other emergency department in Ireland.

I want to pick up a valid point the Deputy has raised, which I have heard her make a few times. I have raised it with the HSE as recently as today. The Deputy talks about the safe staffing levels and the nurse numbers required in the hospital. I have been told, very categorically in black and white here, that the extension of safe staffing to EDs and to general and specialised medical and surgical settings is fully funded. Therefore, I absolutely expect the delivery of the safe staffing levels to EDs and to general and specialised medical and surgical settings in UHL and indeed all hospitals. I am going to pursue that on the basis of the issue the Deputy has raised and I will come back to her. I have also seen that the budget for the hospital is now €382 million. That is a 44% increase in five years. There is no other hospital in the country that has seen that level of increase. The recently published hospital activity report, which gives an overview of the change in expenditure at hospital level, places UHL at the top. Total expenditure in Limerick has more than doubled. It is the largest increase in expenditure over the period.

I turn to the three specific issues the Deputy has raised, all of which are sensible. On the embargo, we live in a country with a health budget that sees capacity for 2,200 net additional posts within the health service this year. We can debate around recruitment, but there is funding for 2,200 additional posts. There will be more nurses, more doctors, more therapists and more people working on the front line of healthcare at the end of this year than at the start of it. I have been very clear on safe staffing levels and the fact they are fully funded in the settings I have outlined. I will come back specifically on the Deputy’s view on the impact of recruitment on the staffing levels in that hospital. The second point was on beds and the Deputy acknowledged we have worked to increase bed capacity while saying we need to go much faster and much further. We have already had 150 new beds open in the University of Limerick Hospital Group since January 2020, with 98 of them at the hospital. Work has commenced on a 96-bed ward block at the hospital in Limerick and there have been a number of other interim measures taken in recent weeks that I can perhaps come back to in a moment.

See this speech in context