Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to talk about health. Following the recent emergency I want to thank the health service staff, the health care staff and the emergency services staff who went beyond the call of duty for the last number of days. They should be recognised for minimising the risk to the public during the status red weather alert. It is clear that these professionals in health care and catering, these porters, nurses and midwives, and those working in diagnostics went above and beyond the call of duty.Many of them camped and slept in hospitals or nearby hotels to ensure care was given. In the case of my local hospital, St. James's Hospital, many residents offered beds to staff who were trying to keep the system going by making arrangements such as shift changes to ensure their colleagues who lived further away would not have to come in, thereby putting themselves at risk. The extreme weather protocol took account of and properly recognised the remuneration of staff who were exposed to danger while working and travelling to work in hazardous conditions. The Taoiseach told people to make sure they were indoors from 4 p.m. on Thursday - this was done because of health and safety factors - but the national shutdown did not, unfortunately, apply to many front-line emergency workers. We need to find a way to recognise and acknowledge the efforts of staff who braved the elements to go to work last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. When the group of health unions meets tomorrow to discuss the protocol for adverse weather conditions, perhaps it might find a way to thank those who went to work at serious risk to themselves.

I support the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, in calling for the first two weeks of March to be treated as an emergency period in the public health service. The INMO was extremely concerned about the pressures that were already on the health service but which were brought to bear to a greater extent in the emergency care area during the five-day period of severe weather. It is calling for an emergency period to be declared for three main reasons. First, the extended period of severe weather led to delayed discharges and caused a backlog in patients being scheduled for admission for elective procedures. Second, rosters will have to be rearranged to accommodate the rest periods needed by INMO members and other front-line staff who have worked tirelessly over extended periods. This, in turn, will reduce the number of staff available to provide services in the short term. Third, was 19% higher than for February 2017, with for inpatient beds, which indicates that hospitals were already overburdened before the adverse weather event and are now bursting at the seams. For these reasons, emergency status must be afforded to the next two weeks. All measures to resource and staff the health service properly must be explored. The assistance of private acute hospital services should also be sought. I welcome the HSE's statement today confirming that it will prioritise vulnerable persons when appointments are being rescheduled. Another difficult issue about which we need to think is the inability of some home helps to access people who were snowed in. What happened was a true meitheal in a very true Irish sense of the word.

I note that Mr. Tony O'Brien has just announced that he will retire from his position as director general of the HSE in the coming months. I wish him well.