John Whelan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I call on the Leader to facilitate a full debate in the House at the earliest juncture on the HIQA report on Portlaoise General Hospital. This does not just have to do with Portlaoise as it has ramifications for health services and all regional hospitals the length and breadth of the country. I do not know if any hospital could hold up to the forensic scrutiny that has been brought to bear on Portlaoise.

It is an important, seminal report. In fact, HIQA said it is probably one of the most significant reports it has ever conducted. However, it need not have happened that we have had such a report because, in 2006, the front-line nursing staff at Portlaoise General Hospital wrote to the then Minister for Health and Children, imploring her to intervene and pointing out that if the hospital was not adequately staffed and resourced, there would be consequences and terrible tragedies to follow. They were proven correct, unfortunately, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.What we need now is to make sure this never happens again. I commend HIQA for the thoroughness and comprehensiveness of the report. After nine years, families and patients finally have answers, accountability and access to what actually happened. They should never have been treated in this way. As Senator John Crown, who has expertise in this area, has pointed out, the performance of Portlaoise hospital was expected to go from 1,000 births to over 2,000 births inside a couple of years with fewer staff. It was being treated as if it was a factory or a conveyor belt. One cannot run a hospital or a health service that way. Portlaoise is a major hospital at the crossroads of Ireland. It is important this does not happen again, yet today we have had the astonishing intervention of the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine calling for the closure and downgrading of the accident and emergency department there. This is absurd. One does not solve a problem by creating a bigger problem. If the accident and emergency department in Portlaoise is deemed to be unsafe, we solve the problem by making it safe and providing it with proper staffing levels and proper resources. I implore the Leader to have the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, visit the House at the earliest juncture. He has intervened robustly in this matter and, while I commend him for his actions, we need to debate this and tease out the consequences.