John Crown (Independent)

I want to wish all of my colleagues who do not have day jobs a very nice summer recess. I will have a little time off in the coming weeks but I suspect that my day job will take precedence. I would have thought that with the decamping of the "junior" House to Ballybrit, the temporary fatwa the press corps has imposed on the Seanad Éireann might have been lifted today. Judging by the absence of members of the press from the Gallery, it appears the fatwa remains in place. That is a shame. As a political neophyte - and as a partial insider and a partial outsider - in the few months I have been here I have noticed that there is a very anti-democratic tendency on the part of the press to ignore the debates which take place in one half of our constitutionally-mandated national Parliament. If I had one wish, it would be that this will change following the summer recess.

I wish to pose a few health-related questions and raise a number of points which I hope the Leader will bring to the attention of the Minister for Health. The first of these relates to the thorny issue of Roscommon hospital. I apologise for sounding like a broken record in respect of this subject. However, for the benefit of anybody who may not recall the position, I wish to indicate that at the time the rather precipitative decision was made to close accident and emergency services at Roscommon hospital - that decision may or may not have been justified and I reiterate that I am not an instinctive "save our hospital" type - I was troubled by the numbers being cited with regard to the alleged disparity in survival rates among patients with cardiac disease attending in either Roscommon or Galway. The latter is the preferred centre of referral and it was stated that the difference in outcomes for patients who suffered heart attacks was 25% versus 5%. I previously informed the House that I had seen figures from Roscommon hospital which suggested that for those admitted to the cardiac unit there, the mortality rate was approximately 5% to 6%. The Minister for Health countered my assertion by stating that he was not referring to global admissions to the unit but was rather referring specifically to those admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of a heart attack or myocardial infarction.

I have been provided with raw figures which were obtained from a trawl of the charts of all patients admitted to Sligo General Hospital during an audit conducted by Dr. Paddy McHugh, the senior physician at the hospital who is in charge of cardiac treatment there. Dr. McHugh discovered that during the years 2008 to 2010, inclusive, approximately 45 people per year were admitted with a diagnosis of myocardial infarction. The mortality figures for the three years were not 25% on average, rather they were 12% for the first year, 4% for the second and 8% for the third. The total for the three years would have been 25% if it had not been divided by three in order to come up with an average. I presume this is not the mistake which was made by those who provided the numbers to the Minister.

I am not accusing the Minister of misleading anyone. However, I believe the numbers which were cited may not offer a fair reflection of the actual outcomes for patients admitted to Roscommon hospital with a heart attack. If for no reason other than to protect the reputations of the fine professionals who worked in the relevant unit at the hospital at a time when it was systematically starved of resources by, with respect, successive Governments of multiple hues, I contest that it would be unfair to suggest that these individuals were producing such inferior results. I wish to make the same request I put forward on a previous occasion, namely, that the Minister for Health to come before the House to indicate what is the numerator, what is the denominator, the number of patients who were admitted with a heart attack and the number who died. From where is the Minister obtaining his numbers in respect of this issue? I am of the view that the numbers he is citing may be inaccurate.

Will the Leader check with the Minister to ensure that there will be no adverse effect on cancer services in Waterford as a result of the announcement that the Whitfield Clinic has gone into receivership? Apparently Whitfield Clinic and Whitfield Cancer Centre have become administratively separate entities but I understand there is a degree of cross-ownership between them. Through public private partnership arrangements, Whitfield Clinic was, de facto, providing many of the cancer services for the south east through its facility in Waterford. I am seeking some reassurance in respect of those services.

I am troubled by the fact that the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, is bringing in UK inspectors to inspect the accident and emergency department in Tallaght Hospital. I am of the view that there are no excellent accident and emergency departments in our Republic as a result of the staffing issues to which I have often referred.

My final question relates to the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. It is widely reported that a major personnel change has taken place in the upper echelons of UNICEF Ireland. This is a charity which raises vast amounts of money from private individuals and this is then used for extremely good causes. In recent years it has been very successful in its work. It appears that decisions are being made by a group of people on the board of UNICEF Ireland regarding personnel changes. Those involved may or may not be justified in their actions. I would like the Tánaiste to indicate who is responsible for choosing and appointing the members of the board of this organisation. Ireland is a member of the United Nations and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade chooses our representatives to that body. Who is allowed to place the stamp of the United Nations on an organisation which is run by people who have various components to their curricula vitae? In the past, some of these individuals worked in the public service and some worked in other areas. The individuals to whom I refer are making decisions which could have an impact on the success of the fund-raising efforts of the organisation in question.