“The unions and staff associations have been looking for a resource study of the Ambulance Service for a number of years and I believe the HSE has finally agreed to such a study.
In these circumstances, there should be no more service cuts and certainly no more service cuts in south Tipperary. I commend the Tipperary Ambulance Action Group which is opposed to the cuts across south Tipperary and came together to campaign on this issue. It has completed a comprehensive study of the ambulance service in south Tipperary. The study confirms that on the basis of the current ambulance service configuration in the county which is based on three stations – Clonmel, Cashel and Tipperary town – the current staffing levels and equipment in those stations, in excess of 55% of the population of south Tipperary cannot be given an adequate service that meets the minimum response times. What does the HSE want to do? On top of a crisis, it wants to introduce further cuts. This is completely ridiculous and I am calling on the Minister to stop any cuts in the ambulance service, not just in south Tipperary but throughout the country, and to ensure that the service is properly funded and staffed.
Full Dail Record of Speech
Deputy Seamus Healy: I rise to support the motion on the ambulance service requesting adequate funding for the service. Anybody who has an eye to see or an ear to hear knows that the ambulance service is under-funded, under-resourced, understaffed and under-equipped and that it compares unfavourably with our neighbours in Northern Ireland and particularly Scotland. We have about 1,600 staff while Scotland, which has a similar population, has 4,500 staff and double the funding. It is widely accepted that the ambulance service in this country is in crisis. The Minister has looked for a review from HIQA. The unions and staff associations have been looking for a resource study for a number of years and I believe the HSE has finally agreed to such a study.
In these circumstances, there should be no more service cuts and certainly no more service cuts in south Tipperary. I commend the Tipperary Ambulance Action Group which is opposed to the cuts across south Tipperary and came together to campaign on this issue. It has completed a comprehensive study of the ambulance service in south Tipperary. The study confirms that on the basis of the current ambulance service configuration in the county which is based on three stations – Clonmel, Cashel and Tipperary town – the current staffing levels and equipment in those stations, in excess of 55% of the population of south Tipperary cannot be given an adequate service that meets the minimum response times. What does the HSE want to do? On top of a crisis, it wants to introduce further cuts. This is completely ridiculous and I am calling on the Minister to stop any cuts in the ambulance service, not just in south Tipperary but throughout the country, and to ensure that the service is properly funded and staffed.
Deputy Seamus Healy: Approximately three weeks ago, on 25 March, I raised with the Taoiseach the absolutely unacceptable number of patients on trolleys and chairs in the accident and emergency department in South Tipperary General Hospital. I described the conditions on that day as reminiscent of those in the Third World. I make no apology for this. Three weeks later, nothing has been done, despite requests from hospital staff and management and the HSE south east management. Today, there is a full-blown crisis in the accident and emergency department. The emergency requires emergency action from the Taoiseach. There were 29 patients on trolleys in the hospital this morning. They are in the accident and emergency department, the corridors of the department, the corridors of the rest of the hospital and along the main public thoroughfare of the hospital. An individual sent me a photograph of a relative who is recovering from a subarachnoid haemorrhage but who is on a trolley in the main public thoroughfare of the hospital, up against a bank of vending machines. Patients have absolutely no privacy. The bathroom and toilet facilities for patients are either totally inadequate or non-existent. This is absolutely unacceptable and outrageous.
The number of patients on trolleys in the hospital increased from 750 in 2011, when the current Government came to power, to 3,100 in 2013. The hospital budget has been cut by €11 million, or nearly 25%, and more than 100 staff have been lost. The hospital is now working at 120% capacity every day of the year. Hospital staff simply cannot cope and, despite their working above and beyond the call of duty, they are struggling to provide a safe service.
An Ceann Comhairle: Has the Deputy a question?
Deputy Seamus Healy: The HSE, the Department of Health and the Minister for Health have failed the patients in the hospital. We require emergency action today. I ask the Taoiseach to take charge of this matter personally and approve additional medical, nursing and support staff for the emergency department in the hospital. I want him to approve additional beds and open additional step-down beds for the hospital.
The Taoiseach: Deputy Healy raised this a number of weeks ago. No less than anyone else, I feel for patients who must go to hospital and those who find themselves in circumstances that are not at a premium level or who are not in the best facilities. I do not have the details Deputy Healy read out, although he raised this three weeks ago. I undertake to ask the Minister for Health for a report on the facts the Deputy mentioned in respect of South Tipperary General Hospital, and I will advise the Deputy on the official response.
The Deputy is well aware of the action taken by the Minister at national level in respect of reducing trolley numbers in recent years. This action has been quite successful. Obviously, there seem to be circumstances in the Deputy’s local hospital that are not conducive to providing care of the best level, as the Deputy pointed out. I will undertake to seek a report from the Minister, through the HSE, on the facts the Deputy outlined in his question today.
Deputy Seamus Healy: There is a crisis in the hospital today. It is all very well producing reports but we need action today. There are 29 patients on trolleys in the hospital, which amounts to ten more than three weeks ago when I raised this issue originally. The HSE is well aware of the matter, as are the Department of Health and the Minister. The Taoiseach is aware of it because I raised it with him in the House three weeks ago. I ask the Taoiseach to take action on this crisis in his capacity as Taoiseach and leader of the Government and country. There is a way to do so, as I told him three weeks ago.
There is provision in the HSE national service plan, under “Critical Service Priorities”, to have €30 million just for situations like this. I asked the Taoiseach three weeks ago and I ask him again today to initiate moneys from that section of the national service plan to provide additional staff at the Department and to open additional beds in the hospital and also step-down beds. As I said, this is an emergency situation and it requires emergency action. All else has failed. It is now Deputy Kenny’s responsibility, as Taoiseach and as leader of this country, to make the necessary decisions and to approve what I have just requested.
The Taoiseach: Deputy Healy is well aware that when we were spending €16 billion on the health system, the numbers on trolleys and the situation in hospital wards throughout the country were in very poor shape. Money is not the answer here.
Deputy Seamus Healy: The Government has the money.
The Taoiseach: An agreement has been set out under Haddington Road for rostering and for changes in regard to all of these things. I have not had a report from—–
Deputy Seamus Healy: The numbers on trolleys have quadrupled since they came into government.
An Ceann Comhairle: Sorry, Deputy. You have had your say.
The Taoiseach: I have not had a report from the manager in South Tipperary General Hospital. There has to be a reason for the excess numbers who are on trolleys, as the Deputy pointed out.
Deputy Seamus Healy: €11 million in cuts is the reason.
The Taoiseach: I do not know if it is a particular issue with the health of some people in the area or what the reasons are for having 29 patients on trolleys. I have offered to find out for the Deputy but he should not expect me to say that we can employ X number of extra people tonight or tomorrow or that we can open beds.
Deputy Seamus Healy: The management in the south east have already asked for this.
The Taoiseach: The Deputy is not dealing with reality there. There has to be a reason for this. The management of the beds in every hospital is a matter for the hospital chief executive and the hospital manager. I do not have a report from them in respect of what the Deputy raises here. I have undertaken to find out for the Deputy from the Minister of Health, through the HSE, what the exact situation is and I will advise Deputy Healy of that.
Deputy Seamus Healy: That is not good enough.
From Paddy Healy on Behalf of Seamus Healy TD 087-2802199
Seamus Healy says emergency action is needed to provide extra staff, beds and resources at South Tipp General. This should be provided from the 30 million Euro HSE emergency Fund.
Kenny says that money is not the Issue
Under pressure from Healy, Taoiseach says he will seek a report from Minister for Health on the Crisis at South Tipp General
Seamus Healy TD
Statement by Seamus Healy TD 087-2802199
Professor Ray Kinsella , Professor of Banking at UCD, has supported the view of Seamus Healy TD that the extent of repossessions of homes now in train constitute a major crisis. Taoiseach Kenny has contended in reply to a leaders question from Seamus that the problems are “solvable” within existing arrangements and to say otherwise is scaremongering.
In his column in the Irish Examiner to-day Friday April 4, Professor Kinsella says:
“But there are also developments in the wider economy that impact on health, including mental health, that is left pushed to the outside of a policy calculus on UHI. A notable example is the exponential increase in housing repossession now under way and which will inevitably and inexorably impose the most severe levels of mental stress, and worse, on the health of tens of thousands of householders.
The Government knows this to be the case — the figures cited in the Dáil recently by Séamus Healy TD are truly shocking. TDs have repeatedly referred to the causes of this crisis and what needs to be done. Mainstream politics is in denial.”
Deputy Healy challenges the Minister regarding the Government amendment which it is believed will lead to the closure of Post Offices into the future.
Deputy Healy formally moving the motion http://wp.me/p1Uvd5-yF
Deputy Healy addressing the Joint Committee on Health and Children regarding the National Ambulance Service this evening.
Earlier today Deputy Healy made this statement in addition:
Ambulance Service
Deputy Seamus Healy has condemned any attempt to transfer an ambulance or ambulances from the Our Lady’s Hospital, Cashel base.
Any such transfer would be totally unacceptable and would significantly reduce the level of ambulance cover available for Cashel, Tipperary and the general mid and west Tipperary areas.
In such circumstances, minimum ambulance response times would be impossible to achieve and would potentially have very serious consequences for patients particularly those suffering from stroke, heart attack and road traffic accidents.
Deputy Healy has confirmed his full support for the newly formed Tipperary Ambulance Action Group.
Deputy Healy, who is a member of the Oireachtas Health Committee, will be raising the whole issue of South Tipperary Ambulance Service at today’s meeting (Tuesday 25th February) of the committee which be reviewing the ambulance service and will be hearing presentations from the National Ambulance Service Representative Association, S.I.P.T.U and the Health Service Executive.
Seamus Healy T.D.
087 2802199
