James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children and wish her well in her new job. However, I would prefer to see her in Mullingar this evening opening phase 2B of Longford-Westmeath General Hospital, a project that has been in the pipeline for 11 years. The shell is built and nothing more constructive has since occurred I strongly support the motion in the light of the Minister's determination to implement the disastrous and life-threatening recommendations of the Hanly report. How many lives have to be lost before the current Government admits to the report's inadequacy and, more important, takes action to drop it? Whatever the fate of this report, questions must be asked and answered as to how a critically-ill man was recently taken away from, rather than brought towards, necessary emergency treatment. This man, Mr. Benny McCullagh, lived 500 yd. from Monaghan hospital and suffered a heart attack at his home. An ambulance arrived quickly and he was treated by the paramedics, but then farce took over. Instead of being promptly brought a few yards to Monaghan hospital the ambulance took him 30 miles to Cavan hospital. The ambulance driver was not to blame. His instructions forbade him taking the cardiac arrest patient to Monaghan. Whether Mr. McCullagh would have lived had he been taken to Monaghan hospital is not for us to judge, but he deserved every chance he could possibly get. This is what he and other patients are not getting.

Quality and safety are mentioned over 100 times in Hanly, but if this is an example of how they are to be enforced, I tremble for the needy and vulnerable. In June 2002 the Government promised to implement a full range of measures to improve accident and emergency services, by significantly reducing waiting times and having senior doctors available at all times. However, the Hanly report intends to remove 24-hour accident and emergency services from the majority of hospitals around the country. Our accident and emergency departments are currently bursting at the seams. The Irish Nurses Organisation issues statements, almost on a weekly basis, to highlight the fact that its members cannot cope with the demands. This is happening in every former health board region. One has only to look in the newspapers or talk to any hospital nurse or doctor who will say they cannot cope with the levels of demand.