John Kelly (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State. I raised this issue in the House earlier as it is a serious situation for Roscommon. I do not wish to repeat what Senator Leyden said so I will focus on a couple of points. It is only in recent months that, as a county councillor attending meetings with the HSE, I realised the HSE wants to abandon any past notion there was a practice called "the golden hour". The HSE now suggests it was never an issue of patient safety but it is a serious issue. Roscommon is 35 miles from the nearest accident and emergency department. Given the response times of ambulances and the distance they must travel to pick up patients and take them back to accident and emergency departments, people in County Roscommon will lose their lives unless this issue is addressed.

When in Roscommon prior to the general election, the Minister for Health gave a clear written commitment on the future of accident and emergency services at Roscommon hospital and stated there would be no downgrading of services there. I am also conscious of the fact the HSE, in its quest to downgrade Roscommon hospital, is manipulating figures in that it uses the ambulance service to redirect patients who should be going to Roscommon accident and emergency department to other hospitals in the region in order that the figures for Roscommon suggest the HSE has an argument. I call on the Minister of State, before decisions are taken and given this is proposed to take effect from 11 July, to ensure a survey of other hospitals, namely, Sligo, Galway and Ballinasloe, is carried out to ascertain how many patients who are proper to Roscommon hospital accident and emergency department are using other hospitals. I hope the Minister for Health will honour his firm commitment to the people before the general election that there will be no downgrading of services.