Keith Swanick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I share my colleagues' concerns regarding the leaked recommendations from the trauma steering group, published in The Sunday Business Post. As of three hours ago, 419 people were waiting on trolleys in emergency departments in this country, and this is the middle of the summer. The hit list of emergency services covers all parts of the country. As we know, overcrowding in accident and emergency departments is a problem. All the data suggest that it leads to increased mortality among patients who attend them.

We used to bemoan the fact that some counties did not have an accident and emergency department. If some of these cuts come into practice, we might have whole regions without one. While I understand why we need to centralise services, and I welcome the BreastCheck and the prostate referral system, we cannot over-pressurise accident and emergency departments that are already overcrowded. That would be my concern. Also, these types of leaked recommendations are not helpful to staff working in the hospitals and GPs who would refer frequently to their local services. For example, Cavan trauma cases could be transferred to Beaumont Hospital or Connolly Memorial Hospital. Both these hospitals have major capacity issues. Kilkenny, Mullingar and Wexford trauma cases could transfer to the Mater or St. Vincent's. All these hospitals are bursting at the seams. This is coupled with an ambulance service that is under-resourced. We have an ageing fleet. Often the roads from the accident or the emergency to the trauma centre have poor infrastructure. I ask the Minister to come in to discuss some of these issues.