Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Senator Darragh O'Brien on accident and emergency departments, but we need to examine how we deal with them. I spoke to a junior doctor who is now based in Perth where the system for dealing with accidents and emergencies appears to be totally different. Another person I spoke to recently was admitted to hospital through an accident and emergency department. The person was in the accident and emergency department for eight hours. Everyone knew what was wrong with the person and that a bed was available in the ward, but they had to wait for test results to come back from the laboratory before the person could be moved from the accident and emergency department to the ward. This sounds like a total lack of organisation and structure. We should look at how we manage accident and emergency departments. We also need to look at the times consultants are on. We need expertise on the shop floor, particularly at weekends, and this does not appear to be happening. This has gone through three or four different Ministers at this stage. We have had problems in accident and emergency departments but have not done any restructuring. Work has been done in one or two hospitals, in Kilkenny in particular, but in other areas we have been continuing with the same process for the past 20 years and we do not seem to have learned any lessons. It is time to look at this. There must be a better system. We should look at how other jurisdictions and hospitals deal with it and bring about the change required rather than leaving people there for 24 hours and 48 hours, which is totally unnecessary.