Mattie McGrath Demands Answers on St Bridget's Closure

I have to go back to an issue, you know, about capacity in our hospitals, and capacity, and questions I've asked the Taoiseach, he refused to answer, it's about the closure of St Bridget's Hospital in Callaghan-Shure, a wonderful facility, there were 200 years or more, Hickaway deemed it unsuitable, but Hickaway deemed it suitable at the beginning of the pandemic to have it as a COVID hospital, theatre-harded patients, how come it's suitable for COVID patients, it's not suitable now for respite and pallets of care, a 14-bed hospital with three pallets of care, a wonderful staff, huge buy-in from the community and huge support, much of the equipment there is provided by local community fundraising, from three counties, South Tipperary, South Kilkenny, and East Waterford. Minister Butler has refused to meet Councillor Cian Burke, Councillor David Dunge, and an Action Committee, or the staff, external nursing and doctors that are there associated with the hospital, Pint Bank refused, and I'm asking you, we're astonished in a partnership government too, to ensure that she does meet those people. We have a letter now back from Minister Mary Buckner, who's a neighbour down the road, her own patients use this hospital, and flies in the face of what she's doing, and this letter states that St Theresa's Hospital in Clougheen, wonderful facility, and indeed nursing homes, have been booked for step-down and respite care. That's simply untrue, because last Thursday, COVID patients were now put into Clougheen Hospital, St Theresa's, a wonderful hospital, and all other patients were put out, out there, under the wonderful management there of Matron Walsh, and her team, so that's out. Then, there's been no negotiations with the private nursing homes, and we know that, so they're very important questions. We're told that a new hospital would cost five to six million, so I want that examined. What I really want is an independent arbitrator to put in, to evaluate what is supposed to be wrong with the hospital, how much would it cost to put it right to HICWA standards. This was done in Clougheen two years ago, an excellent job, just by removing six bed wards, down to four beds, and there is room for an extension on site, and there's also, I believe, room to build a new hospital on site. Minister Butler talks about a diabetic clinic going in there. They already have a huge monstrosity built by the HSE, which is mentally, primary care, not functioning, two toes empty, which could function as that. So, I want answers from you as to why, people want to know how much it costs to put the hospital HICWA compliant. There are other hospitals that have got a worse report than HICWA that was commanded for COVID, and have now been returned to normal hospitals. So, there's something vindictive going on here with St. Bridges, and I want the staff to be met by Minister Donnelly, and met by Minister Butler, and explained, and the Action Committee, because something isn't right here, and we're not getting the full truth, we're not even getting half the truth. So, this is an excellent facility. The palliative care beds are badly needed. There's only two others in Clougheen, none in Clougheen, the whole south east of Tipperary, and they're badly needed. Now Clougheen is off the radar, because that's been used as a COVID step-down, when you had St. Bridges and Carrick for that purpose, and you decided to close in the middle of the pandemic. Thank you, Deputy. Talk about illogical, and strange, and bizarre decisions. This is totally unacceptable, and would not be accepted. Thanks. Thanks very much, Deputy. Just in terms of the overall picture, in terms of hospital capacity, I think everyone acknowledges that we're doing so much better now than has been the case for a very long time. January is usually a period when our hospitals have no spare beds, when we hear every morning about the hundreds of people who are forced to spend some of their hospital stay on a trolley. As of today, for example, we have 400 to 500 beds free across our system, 121 on trolleys this morning, but mainly for clinical reasons. In Clonmel, nobody this morning on a hospital trolley, awaiting admission to a bed, and you'll know how different that is from the experience that we've often had at this time of year in our hospitals. And that is down to the winter plan, down to the additional bed capacity in hospitals and in the community, and down to the amazing work of the staff in our hospitals and across our health service. In relation to St. Bridget's, I don't have an up-to-date note on that with me, I know you've raised it here before. My understanding is that it was closed to overnight patients, because it didn't meet HICWA standards, but it is going to continue to be developed as a healthcare hub for the area, including the diabetic clinic, which you mentioned, and also primary and community care. But I will get more information for you, and certainly let both Minister Donnelly and Minister Butler know that you've raised it again. There's one fine thing I just want to say before I finish up. I just want to recognise the very considerable milestone that was reached yesterday, that three million tests have now been carried out in Ireland for COVID since the pandemic began. That's three million PCR tests, more per head than many countries are often compared to, like Germany, Finland and Australia. And I really want to congratulate everybody working in our testing system, in the laboratories, in the swabbing centres, and also in management in the back offices, for having reached that considerable milestone. And I think they deserve to be congratulated for that. I don't know why you can't answer the question. I know you haven't been up to date on St Bridges, but you were asked about why a hospital that was suitable for COVID patients, deemed so last March, was deemed then in November not suitable for any patients overnight. That's a simple question for you to answer. The second question is, will you stop the Ministers and the HSC sending out letters? That's simply untrue. I don't want to be using the word lies, but that's what it is. It's untrue to say that Tlauheen is available because it's now designated COVID hospital, which is a pity. And talk about trolleys and you go into the national figures. I salute the front line and all the nursing staff and everything else, and the way they've been black-headed with vaccines and everything. But why the hospitals are empty and have capacity is because the fear of God is struck into the people with RT and yourself the other night, with your show, a personal show with Clare Byrne, telling people they're going to be locked up forever. The fear you've perpetrated the people, and the effect that's having on mental health. That's why the hospitals don't have people in them like any other year, because people are afraid of their life. They can't go to their GPs, in my area anyway, only over the phone, and straight in for a COVID test to wait for a hospital. That's why we have the number of COVID tests. So fear is stalking the land. Thank you, Deputy. Fear is stalking the land. That's why the hospital beds and the beds have capacity. I'm glad they have capacity. But you wasted the nine or eight months to build any new ICU beds. Deputy, go ahead. Go ahead. Thank you. Thanks, Deputy. I think people have good reason to be afraid. This pandemic is real. There are 3,000 families across the country who have lost a loved one and are still grieving for them. And had it not been for the actions that people took individually, had it not been for the actions that were taken as a community, had it not been for the actions that the government took, we would be experiencing much higher levels of mortality and sickness than we have now. And at least until we have a critical mass of the population vaccinated, at least until we develop new treatments, there are reasons for people to be afraid. We have increased ICU capacity. ICU is not just about a bed, as you know. It's a whole system of care. We have the bed. We have the kits. Training of the staff has to be done over a period of years. But we have increased ICU capacity. We are using that surge capacity at the moment. It is encouraging that the number of patients in the hospital is now falling. Peaked around 2,000 in around 1,700 now. And I think we will see that reflected in the ICU numbers in the coming days as well.