Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, to the House. I do not have the passion of Senator Cassells on the matter this morning. While one person on a trolley is one too many, things have not been as bad in Galway this year as they were in previous years. There is a reason for this. The temporary emergency department in Galway opened in the autumn and it has improved the situation. It has also allowed the old emergency department to be used and for ten beds to be placed there. These ten beds were not available in the winter of 2021-22. They have been available in 2022-23. Will these beds be available for the winter of 2023-24 or will the site be given over to the builders to clear it, decant and do all that is necessary for the planning for the new emergency department?

This goes show that, as I have said, although there were still too many people on trolleys, the situation was better with the provision of a small number of beds, in this case ten beds. This is important because for a long time Galway suffered with the highest number of people on trolleys. In the winter plan for 2021-22 no additional acute beds were provided in Galway. This year there were, slightly by accident. The question is whether they will be available for winter 2022-23. This is an important point.

It would be remiss of me not to mention someone who is close to somebody on my team who has had a very positive experience of the system in Galway in recent weeks and is still doing so. It is a credit to the staff and management of the hospital. On the other hand I also know of an individual whose mother spent 24 hours on a chair in Beaumont Hospital. Those of us from the west always think everything is fine in Dublin but it is not always so. She eventually got a bed in a ward and that is welcome but to be on a chair for 24 hours in this day and age is not good enough. Her husband was with her. Thankfully she got a cup of tea but he did not even get the offer of one when they passed by with the trolley. Small things such as this can make a difference. In this day and age in a capital city there should not be people on a chair for 24 hours. I wonder whether these patients are being mentioned in the trolley numbers of the INMO or the HSE? Is it just trolleys? There were a number of people on chairs in Beaumont Hospital in recent days. It is not acceptable in a capital city, just as it would not be acceptable in any hospital or emergency department in the west of Ireland.

Regarding longer term plans for Galway, pardon the pun but there is an acute need for acute beds. There is an absolute necessity for additional beds in Galway. There have been numerous plans for a long time. For the first time since I came into the Houses there is a vision in the Saolta hospital group for exactly what is needed in Galway. This was not always there. It was at sixes and sevens with debates about sites, appropriate assessment and the best place to build this or that. At least there are now plans for a cancer care centre on the University Hospital Galway site, new emergency, paediatrics and maternity departments in Galway, new replacement laboratories in Galway and an elective hospital in Merlin Park. We have to progress these. We have to pick the project, for example, the emergency, maternity and paediatric departments, that is furthest advanced, prioritise it, push it and get it delivered.

It is a long time since there was talk that planning would be lodged before Christmas 2018. Planning has still not been lodged. The project has changed somewhat but I still do not understand the delays. I understand the strategic assessment report has been with the Department since last June or July and still has not progressed. These are the delays that frustrate people and that we need to push on and find a solution. I ask the Minister to engage again in the Department on the strategic assessment report and get the emergency department, maternity and paediatric project moving to the next stage.