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

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. This winter has set yet more alarming new records for people on trolleys in our emergency departments. That means more people whose care may be compromised because there is no space for them or no one to admit them. It means more risks for patients’ conditions to worsen in a place where they should expect to improve.

I welcome the new efforts the Minister for Health announced to tackle overcrowding. These are long overdue. In yesterday’s press release from her Department, she identified two issues exacerbating the problem. The first, she said, is the ongoing lack of capacity in hospitals. The second, she tells us, is the increased number of people on trolleys over weekends and on bank holidays due to lower discharge rates. She spoke strongly on radio about this earlier. These are serious issues but the single largest problem, in reality, is the continued chronic shortage of healthcare staff, including nursing staff, support staff and medical staff. The continued pause on recruitment is having a real and serious impact on healthcare in our communities and our hospitals and everyone knows this. Anyone who has recently visited a hospital knows this, so it is not just our view in the Labour Party.

Last week, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation released its first Behind the Trolley Numbers survey conducted by nurses working in acute hospitals and treating patients on trolleys or in hospital corridors. This is the real-world experience of those on the coalface of the crisis. Their view is overwhelming. When it comes to ending overcrowding, 83% identified bed capacity and 80% said recruiting more staff are key to addressing the issue. When it comes to building hospital capacity, clearly there are a great many measures that must be taken. Some of these have been announced, in fairness, by the Minister. We would welcome these, such as the digitising of health records, which is long overdue, and new methods to increase productivity and forward planning in advance of weekends we know will place more strain on the system. Ultimately, however, these measures will come to nothing until the Taoiseach’s Government acts to recruit more healthcare workers and until it introduces ways to improve conditions for staff who are already there so we have better retention rates, because staff do not feel they are being treated with respect.

We have an ageing population, we have more complex needs than before and demand for emergency care has increased, but that is no excuse for outrageous gaps and delays in the system. Last week I raised the case of an elderly woman in my constituency. She was left waiting three hours for an ambulance to take her ten minutes up the road to a hospital. I have received contact from so many other paramedics and ambulance workers since then about they care they provide being compromised by staff shortages. When will we hear more about the new healthcare plan, specifically on staffing and working conditions? Crucially, when will the Government urgently act to carry out the necessary recruitment drive to ensure we have enough staff working in our healthcare system?

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