Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I wish to discuss the situation in our public health service, in particular the case of Mr. Michael Gallagher who recently passed away at University Hospital Waterford, UHW. Mr. Gallagher was admitted to the hospital at the start of December with breathing difficulties and a severely swollen abdomen. He had a history of heart trouble but it became clear that there was something more serious going on.

He was forced to stay on a trolley in the hospital's accident and emergency department due to the unavailability of hospital diagnostic equipment over the weekend. By Monday, he had been upgraded to a different bed on a corridor on surgical 7 ward, only to get access to an actual ward on the Wednesday after five days of waiting outside a ward. Michael subsequently received a diagnosis of peritoneal cancer on 7 December and passed away on 17 December in the presence of his loving family, including his daughter Caitriona and son Liam.

Their praise for the hard work, dedication and commitment of the staff of UHW is steadfast, but the distress and the circumstances in which their father and other patients present across Ireland to public hospitals in the peak season also remains. The son and daughter work in the medical area. Caitriona is a specialist lymphoedema lead nurse working in London while Liam is a professor of cancer biology at University College Dublin and director of UCD's Conway Institute.

The case of Mr. Gallagher came to national prominence due to the heartfelt, focused and detailed open letter they wrote to the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, at the start of the year. In it, they laid out the conditions their father faced, including days and nights on a trolley in brightly lit corridors next to busy doors and thoroughfares where basic rest was impossible, let alone recovery and recuperation. They detailed the stress faced by the medical staff working against the clock and in the face of a system which simply means there are too many people coming through accident and emergency departments at times when they cannot handle the load.

As Liam and Caitriona stated, this was not an environment which promoted patient safety, dignity, privacy or confidentiality. They also laid out their concerns about the effects on patient health that such overcrowding has. The delay Michael faced in his diagnosis meant subsequent delays in the palliative care he received, meaning unnecessary suffering and discomfort. The overcrowding also challenges the efficient operation of such units, with triage systems compromised by queues for diagnostic equipment, people being unnecessarily funnelled through accident and emergency departments to get certificates for sick days for employers and welfare allowances and many others who face long waits and poor conditions as they wait for essential care.

I met Professor Liam Gallagher to discuss the situation his father faced and the issues facing UHW. The trolley crisis in many of our hospitals is not a winter crisis. Rather, it is a year-round crisis, in particular in the hospital in Waterford. I would like to ask the Minister for Health to come to the House for a debate on this issue. As I said, the trolley crisis is an ongoing crisis throughout the country.