Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion regarding public health service staffing. I fully support this motion, particularly its call on the Government to lift the recruitment moratorium, commit to restoring staff positions abolished in 2023 and 2024 and fund the additional recruitment needed for appropriate staffing and the expansion of services. I thank the Labour Party for putting forward the motion.

Our public health service is at breaking point. Hospitals are experiencing record-breaking overcrowding. Understaffing in the health service is severely impacting the ability of staff to provide safe care and is putting both patients and staff at risk. Staff are expected to constantly work under severe pressure. It is not sustainable or acceptable. Something has to give and unfortunately it is the public who are left to suffer this Government's inaction.

For many years, I have been raising the fact that Letterkenny University Hospital needs urgent reform and far greater focus on recruitment. Two months ago, Letterkenny University Hospital was forced to cancel patients' surgeries due to overcrowding as more than 1,000 patients attended the emergency department in one week. Overcrowding adds significant pressure to the already extremely stressful environment that workers in Letterkenny hospital have to endure. It adds to the distress of the patients in Donegal who are forced to wait even longer to access necessary treatment. Last year saw more than 4,000 hospital cancellations at Letterkenny University Hospital. It is clear that understaffing is a significant issue at Letterkenny hospital and that staffing levels across the public health service need to be addressed immediately.

As I often say, however, recruitment is only part of the solution. We need to focus on retention as well. I have seen so many young medical professionals from Donegal leave in search of a better life and a much better health system to work in. That is to be expected, given the immense stress and pressure they are forced to work under within the HSE. It is vitally important to do everything we can to retain all health workers, including migrant doctors, nurses and consultants, who play a vital role in our hospitals and keep our healthcare system from collapsing.

In June I raised with the Minister the fact that several doctors and consultants have been unsuccessful in securing visas for their partners or children. Many of these doctors and consultants have been forced to take the decision to leave Ireland. I am sure the Minister is aware of this already, yet he refuses to do anything about it. These healthcare workers make an immense contribution to our society. They are keeping our health service from the brink, yet the Minister continues to treat them unreasonably.

Severe staff deficits also exist in the National Ambulance Service. This needs to be addressed urgently.

As Letterkenny hospital is unable to take patients quickly enough, ambulances are forced to queue outside and wait for their patients, rather than dropping them off. This is causing severe delays for the ambulance service and putting people suffering an emergency in County Donegal in a very dangerous position. For years, I have been calling for at least three additional ambulances and crews in County Donegal to meet the demand we have. We need one in Letterkenny, another in Inishowen and one in Killybegs. As it stands, a call out to Glencolumbkille can barely meet the call-out requirements when the crew is based in Killybegs. Additionally, though, the crew from Killybegs is often expected to cover Donegal town as well. It a dangerous and unsustainable situation.

We need to be investing in adequately staffing our ambulance service, our public health service and our community hospitals. I strongly believe we should be investing in better community healthcare because it is often underfunded, understaffed and underutilised. Not only would this significantly benefit the community, it would also take the pressure off our regional and national hospitals. This is something the Government needs to consider going forward and needs to fund. During the general election, we may actually see some changes happening. Whoever is in the new Government, perhaps they will actually deal with the situation once and for all rather than letting it continue on from crisis to crisis and lurching from disaster to disaster as we have.

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