Danny Healy-Rae warns of crisis at University Hospital Kerry

Thank you very much. I wish to raise with you today the serious crisis that exists in University Hospital Kerry. Going back three weeks ago or so, the consultative body of University Hospital Kerry wrote, there were 18 of consultants, wrote to GPs and to elected members and they said in that letter, our hospital is in crisis since the second week of September. So then they went on to say elective surgery has been cancelled, high numbers of patients on trolleys in the emergency department, staff shortages and staff burnout. No surgical day ward operating. The acute medical assessment unit is closed more often than it's open. So then, Taoiseach, 2,300 are on the waiting list for elective surgery and many of them in pain. That's all cancelled. Elderly people up to 90 years of age waiting for a bed for two or three days on trolleys in corridors. That's not, that's not, that's not right Taoiseach. And indeed one respectable senior citizen that operated a business, a highly respectable business in Kilianna for many years, died in a trolley in Tralee General Hospital. UHK needs a hundred more nurses, more than what we have now. We need an independent assessment, an external review as to what has gone wrong, so that we could see what has gone wrong and rightify the, the, the, the, the situation. I'm told that senior decision makers are on call management rota at weekends is practically non-existent. Elderly people sent home in ambulances without a home care plan in place. Indeed, if they were able to walk, some of them were sent home in taxis. Ambulances tuned for three to four hours to get unloaded at A&E. Ambulances from Kerry being redeployed at the start of their, we said, they worked 12 hours, and sent to Aries in Cork, as far as we have done Garvin, and finished up in Cranmel, and did not arrive back for, for their, not to work in Cork at all on that, on that, on that shift. Reconfiguration of the, of the ambulance plan, has meant, of the ambulance service in 2012, has meant a reduction of service in Kerry. Staff are exhausted, mentally, physically. Last month, 422 patients were on trolleys, and if we went back four years ago, there was only 114. people on trolleys four years ago, 84 people on trolleys the week before last. Taoiseach, I'm asking you to deal with this urgently. This, this is a crisis that has never existed in Kerry before, in the dimensions that I've explained to you there. I'm asking you, Taoiseach, in our capacity as Taoiseach, to deal with this urgently. Well, first of all, I want to thank the Deputy for raising the issue in the House today. Minister Norman Foley also would have met with the consultants, and would have notified me of the situation as articulated by the consultants, and as you have articulated this afternoon. And it's an issue that the HSE is engaging with. And suffice to say that, you know, COVID has had a very significant impact on our hospitals. Just so I know it has had an extraordinary impact, along with the cyber attack. I mean, both have had a huge pressurizing impact on people working on the front line. And I don't think it's widely appreciated. And I don't think it's widely appreciated the degree to which the cyber attack had on many clinicians in the aftermath of the heat and the high point of COVID had on in terms of access to data, access to records and so forth, which was undermined by the cyber attack. Minister Norman Foley, I think, that said, I want to make it clear to the deputy that the resources are there to deal with staffing issues. I mean, last year alone, the HSE hired about 6000 staff. I think it was the largest ever in any one year. And there's funding this year to hire a further 8000 full time permanent staff in 2022. And so that's a significant resource. I think there has to be moves made to accelerate the HRC. accelerate the HR side of this in terms of recruitment, but the funding is there to recruit additional staff. That's right across the country, but that applies to Turley as well. Additional funding has been made in national clinical programmes, and in terms of staffing, skill mixing and so on, funding has been provided in the budget. 5 million home care hours provided to alleviate the pressures in hospitals, to facilitate flow through hospitals and so forth. And additional community beds, 12,150, short-term rehab and intermediate care beds were provided. Funding was provided for that in 2021. So there's been a very significant expansion. Now, I will ask the HSE in respect of the questions that you raised, again, in terms of the specifics of some of the issues that you've raised. The Minister has provided in the budget 350 million to deal with waiting lists and waiting times, and also to get the numbers, you know, who are waiting on due lengths and Turley's down, and I sympathise with your friend, or maybe I don't know whether you knew the person or not, who passed in very unacceptable circumstances. So just to say the resources are there to deal with this issue, and I will engage with the HSE in terms of the specific issues that you've identified, and that the consultants have identified and have communicated to all of the public representatives in the Kerry region. Thank you, Taoiseach. I suppose what I need to ask you first, seeing as you mentioned it, what have you done since Minister Foley brought it to your attention? What I'm asking for now, on behalf of the people of Kerry, is that urgent action is taken to address this crisis, so as to prevent people from dying, all necessary, to carry out the elective procedures for all the people, many who are waiting in pain, who are suffering severe pain. We need an external review, an independent review, to see what has gone wrong, to see how can the hospital be brought back to provide a safe level of care. That's what I'm asking. We need to ask retired nurses if they could return to work. In the crisis that we're in at this present time, even for one, two or three days a week, many of these were skilled, highly skilled in their jobs, and we're in dire need now of some urgent, drastic action needs to be taken to rectify the situation that we have in Kerry, because people's health is their wealth, and we will see you after the health of the people before anything else. Thank you. We should have to conclude. First of all, action will be taken, but the resources are there, and the HSE have confirmed this to me in relation to dealing with some of the issues that you've raised in terms of staff recruitment, and in terms of measures to alleviate pressures on emergency departments. And given the fact that presentations now at the hospitals are higher even than 2019 levels, and we're maintaining the full range of activities in addition to the COVID issues, yes, the hospitals are under a lot of pressure. I'm not disputing that at all. And I will further engage with the HSE and with the Minister for Health in respect of the situation. And truly, you've talked about the need for an external review. The HSE have systems in place and have – just hear me over a second, please – they have mechanisms that they can deploy to hospitals. If there are issues around governance, which you seem to be implying, I don't know whether that's the point you're making about the external review or not. Thank you, Tisha. But the HSE has at its disposal units and mechanisms to make sure that issues like this are rectified. There needs to be something out, Tisha. There needs to be something out, Tisha. Thank you, Tisha. Thank you, Tisha.