I move:
That Dáil Éireann approves the following Order in draft:—
Rotunda Hospital (Amendment of Charter) Order, 1972—a copy of which order in draft was laid before Dáil Éireann on 9th May, 1972.
Rotunda Hospital (Amendment of Charter) Order, 1972.
In the unavoidable absence of Deputy Hogan, our spokesman on health, I want to say that we in Fine Gael completely agree that the amendment proposed in this draft, to accommodate the sort of development envisaged, should be accepted by the House. I have looked at the charters of a number of voluntary hospitals and they really belong to another age. Apart from the particular charter we are now considering, the Minister should seriously consider approaching the voluntary hospitals and asking them to have a look at their charters, perhaps in conjunction with some of his own advisers or the advisers of the health boards, with a view to bringing them up-to-date and making them sufficiently flexible to meet present-day requirements. We would all wish to see voluntary hospitals playing a very full part in the provision of health services but very often they are prevented from quickly adjusting the part they are able to play in that regard because of something in their charter. The Minister could well ask them to have this revision and I am sure they would be only too anxious to co-operate.
I know it would require legislation and I am making the suggestion in this way because if a number of the hospitals agreed that there should be some sort of general charter used by voluntary hospitals, the same legislation could accommodate this kind of change. There is no doubt that the present charters do belong to another age and it is time that they were up-dated.
The change proposed in this draft is designed to provide, I should say, on an emergency basis almost, additional maternity beds. Nobody can deny that this is a great need at present in the Dublin region. This provision will meet some of the need and only some of it. I am sure the Minister is well aware of this. It indicates to all of us a lack of appreciation of the enormous increase in the population in the Dublin region in the last few years, and the lack of advance planning on the part of all Government Departments to meet this population explosion. There has been an enormous increase in the number of births and all the maternity hospitals are not able to cope with this. Also, people are getting married younger and we have a situation in which we are now providing emergency beds. We would all be anxious to meet the need as quickly as possible but the Minister should assure the House that he is taking a very serious look at the situation from the longer-term point of view and that we are not depending on this emergency and stop-gap arrangement to meet the needs of this rapidly developing Dublin area.
What amazes me is that the changing trend and the tendency for women to have their babies in hospital was not realised by the Department of Health. Although this trend was very much in evidence for quite a number of years no provision was made for it. I wonder why this was not foreseen by the Minister's Department. Women are not now having babies at home; they all opt for hospitals. The Minister might consider, not only in the case of the Rotunda but generally in the case of maternity hospitals, providing special prefabricated or other types of units attached to the hospitals where general practitioners could deliver babies and have full hospital services available to them. This might be borne in mind by the Minister in considering projections for maternity beds for this city. I ask him to take this into consideration.
I shall deal with the question of maternity accommodation in the course of the Estimate for the Department which will come before the House in about a fortnight's time. I thank Deputies for their support of this amendment of the charter.
Question put and agreed to.