Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein)

The plan we have been given says it will be 2029. The winter plan that comes out every year is great but it is a piece of paper and nothing ever seems to change. The hospital is still overrun with patients. It is constantly at capacity. It is great idea on paper to try to bring in GPs but we do not have GPs to put in there in the first place. People cannot get appointments with their GPs.

Trolley numbers went down a little but they are jumping back up. Yesterday, they were at 75. Today, they are at 93. That is not good enough considering 96 beds just opened up. There was a study done that suggested that you will get one death for every 67 people who wait on trolleys in emergency departments for longer than eight hours. It is not good enough that the number has already gone back up to 93. Where is that going to leave us?

I really welcome the HIQA report but it was done as the result of pressure from the families of those who died and for no other reason. It was not the result of political will. I have a little show and tell. Sinn Féin wrote a plan two years ago. It mirrors the HIQA report. Is there something wrong with the Sinn Féin plan that meant nobody wanted to look at it to see what we actually need? That is two more years of waiting and of constant reports and plans but nothing is changing.I am sorry if I sound really cross today but I am cross because I have elderly parents who refuse to go to UHL. One of my parents refused to get into an ambulance because he would have had to go to UHL. He made me put him in the car and take him to Galway. There is crippling fear in the mid-west and it is time now to do A, B and C. We cannot wait any longer.