Alison Comyn (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I raise a serious situation at Our Lady of Lourdes emergency department in Drogheda, County Louth, which reached breaking point over the weekend, as outlined by a report by my former colleague, John Kierans on the front page of the Drogheda Independent this week. Paramedics are being left up to five or six hours with people they are bringing to Our Lady of Lourdes emergency department. It is a huge waste of resources, unfortunately, because if somebody calls an ambulance, they cannot leave. Over the weekend – it went into Monday – there were more than 200 people waiting to be seen or admitted, which means the paramedics had to stay with them. If a person was admitted at 2 o’clock on Monday, that person was not seen until noon on Tuesday. Unfortunately, if paramedics in the north east are called, they cannot bring a patient to anywhere other than Our Lady of Lourdes, despite Navan having a small emergency department just half an hour away and there being a minor injuries unit in Dundalk. When people call an ambulance, they need to be seen. If you have a minor injury, you can go yourself, but if you call an ambulance, you will be taken to Our Lady of Lourdes, and the overcrowding there is at a breaking point.

On 2 January this year, 16 ambulances were parked outside Our Lady of Lourdes. None of those paramedics could be called anywhere else; they had to be called from around the rest of the country. That is despite an ambulance bypass only three days before. I note the response from the HSE saying that if patients are very sick or feel they are in an emergency situation, they should of course come to the emergency department, but other than that, please use other resources such as the minor injuries units. Unfortunately, people feel at this stage they cannot call an ambulance.

We need to see whether emergency departments can be opened up around the rest of the north east. I call on the Deputy Leader to have a debate with the Minister for Health, Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, on this topic.