Mattie McGrath Demands Answers on Health Services and Testing
Mattie McGrath spoke on 14 May 2020 about the suspension and resumption of health services during the COVID-19 response, pressing the minister and the department for clear answers. He accused officials of spin and highlighted concerns on testing, cancer screening, mental health, disability supports and nursing homes.
Calls for transparency and answers
McGrath criticised briefings as a waste of time and demanded honesty rather than spin from the minister and senior officials. He said letters exchanged between Dr. Hoolahan and senior officials had been exposed and called for accountability to be returned to the parliamentary floor.
Screening, cancer and elective care
He asked when smear tests, cancer services and other essential health tests would resume, noting that additional capacity had been arranged in private hospitals. McGrath raised concern about plans to resume operations and the implications for patients with insurance who are waiting for treatment.
Mental health, disability and early intervention
McGrath described mental health services as temporarily non-existent and warned that disability and early intervention services have been cancelled with no timeframe for resumption. He said families are under enormous pressure, cited a recent suicide linked to COVID, and stressed the urgent need to restore day services and supports for people with intellectual disabilities and autism.
COVID-19 testing and local centres
He raised questions about testing arrangements and transparency, citing cases in his constituency where elderly people needed help getting to a test centre. McGrath said a test centre offered by his Rovers G8 club and another in Ninagh were reportedly empty and asked for clarity on the number of tests being carried out locally.
Hospitals, HSE responsiveness and nursing homes
McGrath highlighted St. Bridges Hospital as a pristine, empty facility with beds removed and lights off after being used as a COVID centre, and said his office had received no replies from the HSE or the department about funding and facilities in Tipperary. He reiterated long-standing concerns about cardiac care, dentistry, orthodontics and speech and language services in the south-east, and criticised the handling of nursing homes and the care of vulnerable residents.
Accountability and consequences
Throughout his speech McGrath pressed for answers rather than spin, urged more transparency around operations and testing, and called for restored services for the elderly, those with disabilities and people awaiting cancer and elective care. He argued that families and frontline services need clear timelines and accountability from ministers, senior officials and health bodies.
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It is like Deputy Nocturne, Minister, and we're not getting, we might have lots of questions and question time here, we ain't getting the answers. As for the briefings, the one you said evening was a total waste of time, waste of time. When will we expect to see smear test cancer services resuming and our essential health tests resume? Having arranged additional capacity for COVID-19 care in our private hospitals and you and your department putting together plans to resume operations there and to see the ideological issues here coming up about all patients together, but people who have insurance and paid their insurance are waiting for treatments and they need answers. Mental health services, Minister, are temporarily still non-existent. While we wait to jigsaw services to get set up, disability, early intervention services have all been cancelled and there's no idea of when these essential care services will resume for so many families and mental health is a huge issue. And I've heard of a case recently where a suicide, unfortunately, was down to COVID. There's a lot of tricky to loop going on. on here, Minister, and Deputy Nocturne called it organic manure. I called it something that would be and something else that would be S, but I wouldn't want to say it in the house here. It's just not on. And it's time to stop the spin, give us the answers, and we see the love letters being exchanged now between Dr. Hoolahan and Senior Officials Day, HCC, and you can smile if you like, they're not love letters. They've been exposed today. Letters. Litter. Not a little bit of how can it? Letters going from different departments to different officials. who's what? We need to put accountability back in this floor here, in this house. And what Deputy Nocturne and the Crown Colner intervened there about letters going, or test results going to meat factories. I wouldn't be surprised what happened to meat factories. They literally own the workers. Own them. I have many questions about testing arrangements for COVID-2. In one case, an 80-year-old minister, my constituency in Clonmel, had to get another 80-year-old or 75-year-old to bring him to testing in Kilkenny. In spite of the fact that we have a test centre given by my Rovers G8 club, given by my Rovers G8 club, of some fame, and it's actually empty and not working. So what is going on? Can we have some transparency about the number of tests being done in my Rovers? Indeed one in Nina as well, Minister. Where are the answers? My office is still awaiting replies from your department, Minister, over three weeks at this stage, and from the HSE, about facilities and the funding in Tipperary. St. Bridges Hospital. A lovely hospital. District hospital, as it used to be. Many people in Carrick and Shure were born there. Many people in Carrick and Shure lost their loved ones and they were awake there before we had funeral parlours. And Minister, it was taken over from the COVID centre. Now it's empty. The lights are switched off. Total darkness. And now beds have been removed to be put in the cash flow where you and I visited one day and saw that pristine, empty hospital. Minister, people in Carrick and Shure and surrounding areas, West Waterford, South Kilkenny and on over Tipperary, funded those three hospice beds that are in there and other facilities and we need answers. I can't get answers off the HSE. I can't get phone calls returned or I can't get emails replied to. So where are the answers? Minister, unfortunately, the usual issues about the HSE that I raise on this floor and many other deputies day in, day out, are still there. They might have gone down in the pecking order. But the cardiac care services in the South East are still non-existent. Dentistry, orthodontics, speech and language services and the public system, how long are they going to be or will we have the chaos again? Minister, the worst of all, I think, is what happened in the nursing homes. Poor, and I won't repeat it because I said it here today to the teacher, Poor, literally, they were thrown to the wolves and blocked and they gathered them. What do we do when we had to give them a response? See then, the usual suspects, HICWA, who had to hire in experts from modern areas at all for arm-filling and paper-ticking exercise. Minister, the people with intellectual disabilities and the children with autism, their parents and families, you must feel for them because they can't, they have had no, there was some excellent census in Tipperary, many voluntary community run, they have no outlet, they have no one to look after them, they get no break from the family or the children get no break away from the family. You know, when they need it, when they 24-7 care in their home and there are many young adults that I see now who are just pure frustrated and younger, but it's easier to control them, I suppose, when they're smaller, but when they're big, strong, young men and young women, it's just so desperate on them that they can't get access to the services. Even the trip on the bus with their other colleagues, you know, who are going to school with excellent bus drivers and care, and people that care for them. Look, that's so badly needed and has to be put back out there, some semblance away to keep them sane, the families, because they're just under enormous pressure, enormous pressure. I couldn't, I can't quantify the pressure that they're under, and Minister, the over-70s have put their shoulder to the wheel, but they've been knocked up for long enough, and they're asking questions, and we're all asking questions, and we want just more, less of the spin on RT every evening, 6.1 and 9 o'clock news, and more of the honesty, and the last thing they want is when the teacher said something for the 6.1 news, and when his spin machine is outspun, and he's a fear machine by Dr. Houlihan about challenging him with something else, that is divisive. You rightly praise, and so did every other deputy, the front line, and all the citizens of the state for what they've done, but they need to be, see, one message has to be an honest, direct, and fair message. Thank you. Deputy McGrath, thanks very much for raising a range of very serious issues. Can I just say this, though? The only reason we've suspended any service is to save lives. So, I just, you know, nobody wants to suspend a disability service, nobody wants to suspend a screening service. The reason we were doing it was to make sure we didn't see people die, and more people die, of COVID-19 in our country, and that's the only motivation, was public health grounds. You are right, though. We now need to try and put a plan in place to safely bring back some of these services, in a manner that recognises that this virus ain't gone away, and we're going to have to work out a way of living alongside it, keeping the staff safe, keeping the, be they residents, patients, citizens safe, who use the services as well. And I've outlined the process that we put in place in relation to our screening services. There is a plan being devised in relation to how we can try and provide some supports to children with disabilities. And I thank you for raising this, a very serious issue. There's been a lot of children with disabilities who haven't had a school intervention or a health intervention for many months. And we can't just say, see you in September. That would be an entirely inappropriate and offensive and irresponsible approach. So I am working with colleagues in the Department of Education to see what we can do for them over the summer months. And it'll have to be done in a safe way, physically distance way as well. But there are things that we need to do to support them. In relation to St Bridgetts, my understanding, I have a note here that I won't have time to read out, but my understanding is that admissions will recommence there when there is a demand, and I want to provide you with that assurance. Obviously, in relation to over 70s, and I'm sure you didn't mean the language in relation to locked up, nobody's been locked up. What we're doing here is giving people over the age of 70 the very best medical advice to keep them safe. But I know it's been really tough for them, and we're eager to see that situation improve as well. And in relation to Jigsaw and Tipperary, I obviously had a meeting with Jigsaw, and I know what they are doing in the interim when their services on the ground can't be in place. It's moved a lot of services online to try and provide some degree of support to young people in Tipperary in the interim. And jigsawonline.ie, I think, has a lot of help for young people in Tipperary at the moment. Thank you.
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