Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

Somebody must be responsible for this situation. There are more trolleys in our hospitals than at any time in the past. In view of my experience as a practising GP for 27 years and a casualty officer in UCHG, I am in a good position to comment. The situation I have witnessed in recent times is extraordinary. In Mayo General Hospital last night, some patients were treated in ambulances outside the accident and emergency unit because no trolleys were available.

This is entirely unacceptable and somebody must take responsibility. The Tánaiste has been in office for 100 days as Minister for Health and Children but there have been no improvements. She has said the service will improve by next March. That is an easy claim to make because we are currently in the height of the winter crisis. The problem is that the winter crisis is worse than ever and is effectively a year-long crisis. I am not hopeful the problem will be resolved by March. The Government is now paying for its own sins of omission, neglect and failure to the people. It is not possible to put a pint of water into a half-pint glass, which is what is happening. The Government took 3,000 beds out of the system for financial reasons to save money. There must be a consequence to this decision, which is the present crisis. Until those beds are restored the crisis will not end. It does not make sense to try to empty a casualty department when no beds are available upstairs.

While the health strategy promised 3,000 more beds, we have seen nothing like that number so far, nor do I believe we will see it. Promises are made all the time. We were recently promised 38 beds in Mayo. However, those beds have been announced and promised before on more than one occasion. Those beds are used up mainly for orthopaedics, with a few for overflow from accident and emergency departments. The beds are already in use. The 38 beds offered by the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children are useless. They are phantom beds for phantom patients. We have enough patients without having phantom patients.

Operation freeflow was established to help the traffic in Dublin. It is time to get freeflow out for the accident and emergency departments. Casualty consultants suggest getting rid of the trolleys and putting them elsewhere — out of sight, out of mind. With respect to my colleagues who are casualty consultants, to put the trolleys elsewhere will not solve the problem. With the trolleys where they are now, at least people can see them.

Some people have been on waiting lists for up to ten years and the 100,000 still waiting to get on the official waiting list are the people who are presenting at accident and emergency departments. We have an inordinate number of emergencies because of those people. If they are left on a waiting list for five or ten years, what can we expect? They will get seriously ill and block up accident and emergency departments.

West Mayo has no ambulance base. A patient has to wait an hour for an ambulance at the end of Achill, which is 50 miles away, and then wait another hour to get to emergency hospital services. If it was not an emergency when the ambulance was called it would certainly be one by the time the patient reached the hospital.

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