Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and thank him for coming to hear about these issues at first hand. It is the first time he has heard them, but it is good that he is here. It is always important that we are courteous and respectful to Ministers. The Minister is part of a tripartite coalition Government made up of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party. These are not new issues for any of these parties involved. I presume they have been discussed by those parties at length. None of this should be a surprise.

I thank Senators Conway and Maria Byrne and their party colleagues for bringing this issue to our attention. It is always important that we shine a light on matters of this nature. I am conscious of the arithmetic in this House and the vast numbers on the Government side. One of the real challenges for parliamentary democracy is that the Opposition is so small and the vast number of Members on the other side have collaborated on everything. They have power but they also have responsibility. They have to shoulder that responsibility in the context of things that do not go well as much as they do when it comes to things that do go well. That is an important point. When they have such power collectively within Parliament, it is right that they should be questioned. All we have available to us is that we can shine a light on an issue. At the outset, I thank the those who put this important motion together.

As Senator Maria Byrne rightly stated, let us cut to the chase. There are four asks here. I am of the view that the Minister, everybody in government and those on all sides of the House want to see these implemented. However, there is the reality of how they are going to be implemented in a timely manner, and how they are going to be implemented in accordance with the wishes of the medical practitioners, all of the hospital staff and the management structures that are in place, and to the satisfaction of patients and their families, which is an ongoing challenge.

The other issue is resources. This is not a blame game. We all know what the problem is. We need to assess, in a positive way, how we are going to get out of the mess at UHL, and we need to look at hospitals that are somehow outperforming others. We need to compare like with like, although I acknowledge that no two hospitals are the same.

I thank the 87 consultants who highlighted this matter in The Irish Times. The story also appeared in other newspapers. Today, I received a back issue of the Limerick Postfrom a member of Fine Gael in the west who said that he knew this was coming up and that I might have a look at it. The article in that newspaper was more or less about the same letter,. However, I thought it was interesting to look at the local angle taken in theLimerick Post, a publication with which I am not familiar. What the consultants said was extremely concerning. We all have to be worried about it, particularly in the context of issues relating to overcrowding and the relentless demands on services for many years. Much of this involves having adequate resources, and that is where the Government comes in.

I am sometimes amazed, in my observations of the Dáil and Seanad, at how Government Members come into the Houses and are highly critical of something, and rightly so. However, they are in government; they have got to get solutions and they have to work together. It is too easy to hang the Minister or somebody else out to dry. They are in government. As stated, it is a tripartite coalition Government. They have to take the good with the bad, put their shoulder to the wheel and lead. We are called upon as politicians to be responsible and to lead.

I want to touch on a few points, in particular the issue of care, dignity and respect for the patient. People are vulnerable. It is unacceptable that people have to wait days and days on trolleys. We are hearing stories from Ennistymon and other hospitals. The Limerick Post reports people sitting on trolleys for three to four days. I am aware of the case of a woman whose daughter, who is 19 or 20, was admitted to the hospital in Ennistymon with heavy bleeding and gynaecological problems. She was not offered the opportunity to wash or take a bath for four days. That is the reality. The woman and her daughter spoke to me this morning and asked me to raise the matter here. They thought I might be embarrassed and would not want to do so. Why would I be embarrassed? Four days on a trolley and she was not provided with washing facilities or supports. That is clearly not satisfactory. I could go on with a litany of issues.

The reality is that the consultants involved have highlighted the issue. They have put pen to paper and they have said there are grievances, shortages and issues. However, there is a bit of hope. The consultants' letter states:

The recent Deloitte report clearly outlines the disparity in support and resourcing. We welcome the recent engagement of the Taoiseach and Minister for Health and their acknowledgement that UL Hospitals group require specific support to build additional bed capacity to serve the demographic demands.

It is positive that they welcome and are open to engagement. They want dialogue, they want to get on with it and they want to do what they are trained to do, which is to provide these services. The letter also states that they are “calling on the Minister for Health to bring this about through engagement with the clinical stakeholders and allocation of adequate resources.”

That is it. That is the gist what my colleagues are saying. I support them. I look forward to discovering how we might do it. The real focus in these four asks is whether the Minister has the resources to act on them in the short, medium and long term. How does he propose to get the resources? Can he expedite his vision, his plan and his commitment? What positive messages can he send out, not just to these consultants, who are only part of the picture, but also to the people in the region and the patients? How are we going to move matters on and fix the problem?I thank the Minister and I thank the proposers of this Private Members' business.