Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Bhí mé ag cruinniú ar an Aoine den fhundúireacht nua atá ag plé leis na hospidéil i nGaillimh agus i Ros Comáin. Tháinig roinnt ceisteanna tromchúiseacha chun cinn. At a meeting of the Galway Roscommon University Hospitals Group on Friday, we were give information which I believe indicates a scary trend in the current provision of health services. Staff and management of the hospitals told us that there has been a marked increase - from 55 people per day this time last year to 65 this year, a 15% increase - in the number of people presenting at the accident and emergency departments during the past year.

When I asked whether that was a local or national trend, I was told that it was the latter. As the increase is predominantly among the elderly, it raises the question of why so many older people are presenting in hospitals. I would surmise that it has to do with the cutbacks and people growing sicker. We should examine this trend.

Questions must be asked about the way in which the Galway Roscommon University Hospitals Group has been developed as a model of hospital delivery. It covers four hospitals - two in Galway city, Portiuncula, and Roscommon - and mention has been made of the possibility of including the hospitals in Castlebar, Sligo and Letterkenny in the trust. However, the apparent emphasis on key performance indicators, KPIs, accountability and running the hospitals as a business is alarming, as there does not appear to be any KPI as regards the quality of service.

I am also concerned by the way the new hospital trust will relate to unionised labour within the hospitals. I worry that the trust may be a way of circumventing the industrial relations scenario so that management can drive nurses' wages down. The trust's CEO indicated to us that he hoped to have more wriggle room, as he put it, in wage negotiations.

We need to discuss this matter with the Minister for Health. If this model for delivery is to be replicated across the country, we need to examine what a hospital trust will do, how it will work, whether it constitutes privatisation by stealth, to whom will the boards be accountable and how they will treat ordinary hospital workers.