Seanad debates

Tuesday, 13 February 2018

Commencement Matters

Hospital Waiting Lists

2:30 pm

Photo of Maire DevineMaire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last night, a group of parents with children who are inpatients at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, along with some older children, held a candlelight vigil outside the hospital to highlight the crisis of waiting times for beds there. Ms Hazel Robinson is the parent of a 15 year old daughter with cystic fibrosis. She started this vigil because her daughter was recently obliged to wait over a week to secure a bed in the hospital after she contracted influenza, which compromised her health further. Ms Robinson has faced the same problem on numerous occasions when trying to source a bed for treatment for her very sick daughter. Many of the parents there last night share that experience. What are we doing wrong? Are we doing anything right?

I have been working on a document, now ready for publication, which specifically focuses on Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, and what investment is needed and where it needs to go. The stark figures and data, from parliamentary questions and from the Department itself, show that the inpatient waiting times for the hospital are unacceptably high. The total inpatient day case waiting number for the entire children's hospital, which includes the other two hospitals, is at almost 5,000. Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, accounts for over half of these. The position is unacceptable, especially considering that many of the children are waiting with life-threatening and progressively deteriorating conditions. The waiting list for children with musculoskeletal problems to access the orthopaedic unit is often 18 months. That issue has been highlighted several times by the national public broadcaster.

I want to know what plans are in place to tackle the trolley crisis in our children's hospital system. We know all about it in the adult accident and emergency departments, but the children and their parents deserve as much attention and dedication to solving the problem. Is it the case that we are going to have to wait until the establishment of the national children's hospital in 2020 or 2021? There is a significant timeframe involved here for sick children. They do not have that time available. I hope that the national children's hospital will be fit for purpose and have sufficient capacity, but what can we do in the meantime?

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