asked the Minister for Health if he is aware of the discontent caused by his Order to discharge or to remove to the county home incurable patients from the Galway Regional Hospital; and if he will reconsider the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Galway Regional Hospital Patients.
I have not made any Order for the discharge or removal to the county home of incurable patients in the Galway Regional Hospital.
As I indicated, however, during the course of the debate on the Estimate for the Department of Health, the duration of the bed occupancy in the Galway Regional Hospital seems to be excessive in some cases. There were, for instance, last February, 106 patients in the hospital who had been there for two months or more. One patient had been there for six years; another for three and a half years; five for about two years; nine for 18 months; 17 for nine months and the remainder for varying periods up to six months. Twenty-two of these patients were 70 years and over, and there were 12 between the ages of 60 and 70 years. That, as I explained, is one of the reasons why there is a shortage of beds in Galway Regional Hospital.
This hospital cost approximately £2,100,000, the whole of which was provided out of moneys under the control of the Minister for Health. It was erected primarily to accommodate persons who are acutely ill and in urgent need of hospital treatment. It is the duty of the health authority to use the beds of the hospital for this purpose, and there is no justification for diverting them to a use for which they were not intended.
Do I take it from the Minister's reply that those acutely ill will be discharged? It is most unchristian and unfair to the people that they should be discharged in that condition.
The Deputy can take it from the Minister's reply that he is not prepared to allow this expensive establishment, established for the treatment of the acutely ill, to be used as the equivalent of an old workhouse.
The Minister should take more note of what I said in the question.
"Used as an old work-house"—what an extraordinary form of words!
There is plenty of accommodation for these people elsewhere in Galway.
Who are these people who are taking up the beds?
They are dying.
They are not dying.
Does the Minister say that he approves of this?
I am calling the next question.
Is it the Minister's policy to discharge these people from this institution?
It is my policy to use institutions for the purpose for which they were erected.
Is it not a fact that these people are not half as old as the Minister and his Cabinet?
The Deputy should address that question to Mr. Thornley.