John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

This is an extremely important issue and I am a little disappointed that it is not being dealt with by the Minister for Health and Children or a Minister of State from that Department.

Kilcreene Orthopaedic Hospital is the regional orthopaedic hospital for the south east and, together with Waterford Regional Hospital, St. Luke's General Hospital, Kilkenny, Clonmel General Hospital and the general hospital located in Wexford town, comprises one of the five parts of the acute health service infrastructure for the south-eastern region. It is a fantastic facility that processes a large number of orthopaedic procedures every year and a remarkably successful hospital. In particular, it has managed to control better the number of infections which can be so damaging to elderly people who are hospitalised to undergo orthopaedic procedures than nearly every other orthopaedic facility in the country. It is an example that should be used across the rest of the country.

I was particularly shocked and disappointed by the actions of the Health Service Executive. It issued a press release dated 2 June in which it tried to couch the closure of 20 beds in Kilcreene hospital as something that was a success for the HSE in that it would increase and meet its target for day case procedures because it was closing 20 of the 51 beds available in Kilcreene hospital.

A number of facts were included in that press release which are frankly wrong and are downright lies. The HSE states the closure of the 20 beds is to facilitate the staff of the hospital to go on annual leave. That is not the truth. Staff at the hospital are not seeking such closures to facilitate annual leave.

It is worth pointing out that in recent years the number of times the hospital beds have been closed has increased, particularly the Christmas closing which appears to come earlier in the month of December every year. The emphasis is on budgets and we are all aware that the HSE, no more than any other Government agency, must strive to operate within its budget but there is also the greater public health issue. I strongly believe in the free market and that the State should not be involved in every aspect of people's lives but education, health and transport are the three core pillar areas where the State must have an involvement.

As part of our public health facilities Kilcreene hospital is an example of how people who cannot afford to pay for them, public patients, can get a very good health service. The many people who get access to our public health service are very pleased with the service they get. The difficulty is in getting access to that service.

Kilcreene currently operates with six consultants who come from Waterford, one each day, to carry out the procedures at the hospital. They have been told to reduce the number of joint replacement operations to two per day rather than four or five, which currently takes place. These cuts are proposed to come into place from 1 July which would see a reduction from 51 beds to 31 beds until the end of the year at least.

I have already mentioned that this has been couched in terms that it is facilitating the staff of the hospital. That is not the case. The real difficulty for Kilcreene is that its income has been affected because of the sharp decline in the number of private operations taking place at the hospital. I understand there are ten private rooms and occupancy of those rooms has fallen dramatically in recent months. I suppose it is a symptom of the economic climate in which we live currently but because of those private rooms not being utilised as much as they were previously, the funding for the hospital has been reduced. Despite the fact that orthopaedic and joint replacement procedures have increased in the past ten years from over 300 to over 700 the hospital never got what one would call a proper budget. That is the difficulty in which it now finds itself.

If we are to believe in a future for public health Kilcreene hospital, which is a shining example for the entire country in terms of orthopaedic surgery, should not be cut back by way of the drastic measure the HSE is proposing. I hope it will reconsider the provision of health care for public patients because if this comes into play, there are many people on waiting lists who will wait a lot longer for the urgent hip, knee and other joint replacement operations they require.