HSE and ambulance crisis
Mattie McGrath called for urgent debate and action on the National Ambulance Service, HSE staffing shortages and dangerous delays in emergency departments. He pressed the point again after the Chair intervened.
My colleague, Deputy Carol Nolan, outlined the chronic situation with the National Ambulance Service. On behalf of my group, I want to raise the need for an urgent debate and urgent action regarding the HSE and its inability to serve the people and carry out its job.
Front-line staff are doing a sterling job but there are not enough of them and we are being told we will have to accept delays of 24 hours in accident and emergency departments. Cork University Hospital, CUH, which the Minister will know, had the highest numbers yesterday after University Hospital Limerick, which serves half of County Tipperary. All of the accident and emergency departments are under chronic pressure. We are six or seven weeks away from the Christmas holiday period. We will go off on our holidays at Christmas and come back to an unholy mess in January, as happens every year. Something is seriously amiss. The Minister is obviously incapable of managing it-----
Comment on this
We need a serious debate on this matter and, more important, we need action. We are continuously asking for this situation to be rectified and it gets worse by the day.