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Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 5 December 2018

Wednesday, 5 December 2018

Questions (42)

Michael Moynihan

Question:

42. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Minister for Health the number of medical, nursing and care posts vacant in Mallow General Hospital; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50785/18]

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Oral answers (7 contributions)

I want to introduce a question on medical nursing and care posts in Mallow General Hospital. Is the hospital working to full capacity in light of the crises in the city hospitals in particular and will the Minister make a statement on the matter?

I thank the Deputy for the question. As the Deputy knows, Mallow General Hospital is part of the South/South West hospital group. It is a model 2 hospital providing acute general hospital services to the people of north Cork. The hospital has 54 acute beds, in excess of 220 staff and a budget of approximately €17.5 million in 2018.

There are approximately 20 staff vacancies at present in Mallow General Hospital across medical, nursing and health and social care. The HSE has advised me that the overwhelming majority of these posts have been sanctioned for funding and we are awaiting the advertisement through the national recruitment services division. I will ask for that to happen urgently.

Retaining and increasing the number of nursing, medical and health and social care staff in the public health service is a key priority. The total number of consultants, non-consultant hospital doctors and nurses has increased despite these challenges.

I have no doubt that we need to continue to do more, not just in Mallow General Hospital but in all of our model 2 hospitals. I had the pleasure of visiting Bantry General Hospital and Clonakilty Community Hospital this week as well. There is definitely capacity in some of our smaller hospitals and I want to see us do more there. I am told that there are very few medical post vacancies in Mallow General Hospital and the majority of vacancies are nursing posts. I would be very happy to visit Mallow General Hospital in due course to meet the management there and to look at what the opportunities are to expand services there.

One of the areas that I am particularly interested in is whether we can take pressure off the larger hospitals where there is bed capacity in some smaller hospitals and whether we can use the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, to insource into some of our smaller hospitals as well as outsourcing. There is more that we can do in these hospitals and Mallow General Hospital certainly has an important role to play.

I thank the Minister for the reply. Mallow General Hospital has had large investment in its theatres and so forth in recent times. Right through various crises this year, especially in the earlier part of the year from January to March, the theatres were closed for a long time. Up to and including 1 April, there were four weeks when no work was going on there because of issues, and at that time there was massive pressure on Cork University Hospital, CUH, and on the city hospitals.

There are approximately 20 vacancies, as the Minister said. When will they be advertised and filled? We have to be serious about making sure that all services are utilised to the fullest extent that is humanly possible to make sure that Mallow General Hospital can continue to provide fantastic work and services. I have personally experienced it throughout the years and I cannot praise the people who are working there enough. Top of the range surgeons are working there but it is underutilised, particularly when there are massive challenges in the city hospitals. It is high time that we looked at Mallow General Hospital and other hospitals to make sure they are working to full capacity.

I will ask the HSE to revert directly to the Deputy in terms of when the advertisements for those vacant posts will be placed, but my understanding is that it is pretty imminent and that they have been sanctioned for funding so it is a matter of placing the advertisements. I had an opportunity to meet the CEO of the South/South West hospital group with my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, in Bantry on Monday where we had a discussion about better utilising the model 2 hospitals within the South/South West hospital group. The Minister of State will follow up on that for me but we agreed with the South/South West hospital group that when new consultant posts are being sanctioned anywhere in the group, part of the requirement in the contract will be that the consultant goes out to the model 2 hospitals and carries out more of their clinics and theatre practice there. Through that we can drive more patients and citizens through the model 2 hospitals and keep them out of the larger hospitals, which are very busy, as the Deputy rightly said.

I will come back to the Deputy directly through the HSE on when those posts will be advertised. I have made it very clear to the South/South West hospital group that I want to see plans to better utilise our model 2 hospitals, and I am happy to engage with the Deputy further on that.

How long have these positions been vacant in Mallow General Hospital? When was it decided that these 20 vacancies would be filled? When was that decision taken by the South/South West hospital group? The Minister has used fine words about utilising Mallow General Hospital as much as possible to make sure that it takes pressure off other hospitals. That is a fine aspiration, but how long have these vacancies been there? My information is that they have been there for quite some time. When will they be filled so that we will have Mallow General Hospital working to its full capacity?

From my experience within the hospitals, I am being told that when theatres are closed and there is a large cancellation of planned surgeries in the city hospitals, at the same time Mallow General Hospital's theatres are lying idle. How long have these positions been vacant? When were they identified? Have they been advertised as of now and, if they have not, when will they be advertised and when will they be filled?

I want to be associated with Deputy Michael Moynihan's comments and I congratulate the staff at Mallow General Hospital. I had a parliamentary question on this on 29 November asking about Mallow General Hospital, Midleton Community Hospital, St. Finbarr's Hospital, Youghal Community Hospital and so forth and I have not received an answer yet. The Minister gave an answer that there are 20 staff vacancies today in Mallow, but we are still having problems getting answers from the HSE. These community hospitals are the heartbeat of the country and we need to have them fully staffed.

I urge the Minister to keep an eye on the parliamentary questions that we are putting to the HSE because we are not getting the answers at all.

I will follow up the matter that Deputy Buckley raised. That is not acceptable and the HSE is meant to answer those questions within a specific timeframe, so I will follow that up directly with it.

I answered Deputy Michael Moynihan's second question by saying that I would get the HSE to revert to him directly on when those advertisements will be placed. It is important to point out that some vacancies have arisen very recently. I believe the two staff nurse posts have arisen only in the past month. Another one of the vacant posts for a clinical nurse specialist in cardiac rehabilitation has become vacant because one of the candidates has been promoted to a candidate advanced nurse practitioner which will ultimately be good for the hospital. Some of the vacancies are looking ahead towards three maternity leave posts which will arise in 2019.

It is not aspirational. We will do more in our model 2 hospitals. In fact we are already doing so and the evidence is there throughout the country. I had these discussions with the chief executive of the South/South West hospital group on Monday and there is capacity to do more in Mallow General Hospital. I am determined that we will do so and I am happy to keep in touch with the Deputies on that.

Questions Nos. 43 to 47, inclusive, replied to with Written Answers.
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