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Seanad
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Aleppo and UHG overcrowding

Summary

Senator Butler condemned killings in Aleppo and urged the Foreign Minister to denounce the Assad regime and press the Russian ambassador. Senator Ó Clochartaigh then raised severe overcrowding at University Hospital Galway, including patients on trolleys and repeated code blacks.

Will the Leader ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan, to condemn the killing of certain family members in cold blood by the Assad regime in retaking Aleppo? What I watched on CNN this morning was heart wrenching. The Minister should ask the Russian ambassador to Ireland, Mr. Maxim Peshkov, in the strongest terms not to allow the Russian army to stand by and watch this massacre happen. What we are seeing is genocide, but the watching world is doing nothing. We are not taking sides in the conflict. There are rights and wrongs on both sides, but what I saw happening this morning was not right. Yesterday morning I heard that 76 young men and boys who had been trying to get out of Aleppo had been caught by the regime and disappeared off the face of the Earth. Family members cannot get in contact with them and their mobile phones are not working. Something is wrong. I want the Minister to tell the Russian ambassador that the Irish people will not stand by and watch this slaughter of the innocents.

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Tá mé ag ardú ceist ar maidin a d'ardaigh mé roinnt uaireanta roimhe seo. There are reports that there are more than 60 patients on trolleys or in overcapacity wards at University Hospital Galway, UHG, a record high. It is reported that one patient has been on a trolley for almost five days. According to spokespersons, nurses are regularly calling the INMO to raise concerns about the levels of overcrowding and the impact it is having on patients. The hospital is facing a third month of near constant code blacks, which has led to the manager, Ms Chris Kane, to say patients are suffering. A new 75-bed ward at the hospital - an €18 million development - is to open in the near future, but we are told that it will not add to bed capacity because three existing wards will be closed as part of the development. The issues are ongoing. Hospital management is constrained in increasing capacity by planning restrictions and provisions included in the city development plan which require an adequate number of parking spaces to be provided in the event that additional beds are provided in the hospital. It has been said UHG is no longer fit for purpose. The Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, is to visit it in the near future. A public rumour on a local radio station this morning has it that he might be visiting Galway during Christmas to open the new 75-bed block. If so, will it be opened at full capacity? Will it lead to increased bed capacity in the hospital? We are hearing that only a number of beds will be made available. Will the block be fully staffed? I have asked the Minister a question a number of times, including in the Commencement debate. Does he not now accept that, at the very least, a feasibility study of the development of a new hospital in Galway is needed? The clinicians, management and patient representatives are saying it is. We must consider it if we are to deal seriously with the chronic issues in Galway. Will the Leader call on the Minister to debate the issue in the House?

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