Meath East Sinn Féin representative Sinéad Burke has called on the Minister for Health to outline what measures she has put in place to find hospital beds for the 38 patients on trolleys at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.
Sinéad Burke said "Figures released by the Irish Nurses Organisation show that there are 38 people on trolleys at the Lourdes, and 425 on trolleys across the State. These figures are on a par with March 2006 when Mary Harney declared the situation a national emergency. Does she think it is a national emergency this time? If so, what is she doing about it and why did she not fix the problem back in 2006? I am calling on the Minister for Health to take account of the situation, stop blaming the HSE and tell us what measures she has put in place to deal with this crisis which brings misery, loss of dignity and loss of privacy to patients and intolerable workload and stress to frontline nursing staff.
"Any attempt to suggest that the overcrowding can be attributed to the cold spell and the winter vomiting bug are simply not sustainable. A world-class health service should be able to plan for, and deal with, cyclical events such as these without incurring the stress and strain on patients and staff that is taking place today."
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