Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. I wish to raise policy issues around the emergency unit in Galway University Hospital. The level of overcrowding is dangerous. I have received the following comments:

If this was any other workplace, it would be closed due to health and safety. It was like a scene from a film of a catastrophe or a warzone.

The previous Senator from Galway who spoke also mentioned the stress on the unit there. I believe the Minister mentioned that there are 46 primary health care centres around the country. What is he doing to incentivise attendance and reorientation towards the primary health care centres instead of the emergency room? That is a valid question to ask. Where is the promised primary health care centre for Oranmore? The former Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, bumped it down the list in favour of Balbriggan; so the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, might look at that.
There is a serious issue with overcrowding leading to dangerous situations for staff to work in. I will give one quote from last week.

There are patients on trolleys and chairs if they could find them. Some were standing. It was so bad that there were three ambulances parked outside. Two ambulance staff were waiting in the waiting room with their trolleys, which were also full. One managed to get through the doors of the treatment room. I tried to get a drink of water, but I had to wait for staff to finish working in the small space between the chairs and the trolleys. The staff were fantastic. They apologised continuously and smiled through it all. They have nothing to apologise for.

The danger of infection in that environment is high - particularly cross-infection. In this case this was a cancer patient who asked me very simply why such patients when coming back for care are not admitted straight to the oncology ward? Surely that is a guideline from the Minister for Health.