Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, and thank her for coming to the House to deal with this matter. I know she has a very busy schedule. The matter I am raising this morning concerns Mercy University Hospital in Cork, which has an accident and emergency department and a urgent care centre. When the accident and emergency department was constructed, the view was that it would deal with 25,000 attendances per annum. In 2015, it received 31,946 attendances. By the end of November 2016, it had already received 30,297 attendances. In addition, its urgent care centre dealt with 15,430 people in 2015. By the end of November 2016, the centre had received 15,066 attendances so the figures are going up.

The hospital has accident and emergency consultant cover for only 55 hours per week in an accident and emergency department that is open 24-7. It has 55 hours per week, which is equivalent to 1.4 whole-time equivalent consultants. A similar facility throughout the country would have five accident and emergency consultants. The unit faces major challenges. The other significant problem faced by Mercy University Hospital is the huge increase in the number of elderly people attending its accident and emergency department. I understand the 2015 figure relating to this went up by 12%.

This is a great unit that is very welcome in the sense that the standard of care provided is excellent and, therefore, people have confidence in it. However, it needs sanction from the Department and the HSE for additional accident and emergency consultants to be appointed so that it can deal with the volume of people attending. That is my request and that is why I tabled this Commencement matter.