Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 September 2020
40. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Health the protocols being put in place in order that patients may be admitted directly to Belmullet community hospital having full regard for Covid-19 screening prior to admission in view of the fact they have to be sent to the accident and emergency department of Mayo University Hospital before they can be transferred to Belmullet; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23698/20]
View answerI send my best wishes to the Minister for Health and thank the Minister of State for stepping in this evening. My question is about Belmullet hospital, which serves almost 10,000 people. I want the Minister of State to explain to me the logic of refusing direct referrals from GPs in the area. Patients are being asked to travel 100 miles to 150 miles in a round trip to stay a night in the acute facilities at Mayo University Hospital before they can be referred back to Belmullet hospital. It makes no sense whatever and is absolutely crazy. Why is this done and when will the practice be stopped?
I would like to correct the record. Speaking earlier, I may have inadvertently put the figures the wrong way around when I should have said there were 357 cases of Covid-19 and three deaths arising from the virus today.
I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for her question, which refers to Belmullet. The Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC, has developed an extensive body of guidance and support tools on resident transfers and admissions, which as we all know are available on the HPSC website. The guidance sets out the measures that should be adopted for admissions to residential facilities.
Belmullet district hospital is a step-down facility supporting acute hospital discharges. It had a bed capacity of 20 but now has a reduced capacity of 12 beds. The eight beds were unoccupied at the time the reduction took place. Admissions to the district hospital must comply with the infection prevention and control guidance issued by the HPSC.
The HSE has advised the Department that all measures put in place in Belmullet are in order to adhere to Covid-19 infection protection control guidelines to maximise patient safety. There are no direct admissions from the community to any district hospital across the board since the commencement of the Covid-19 emergency surge in March 2020. I understand the Deputy's point, as more often than not cases like this involve an older person who may have to be transferred to Mayo to spend a night in the acute hospital before being transferred back. However, since the onset of Covid-19 no person is being transferred directly to a community hospital.
In March or April of this year, while on the other side of this House, I would have raised many times the fact that many patients were transferred to nursing homes without being adequately tested for Covid-19. It was a major factor in the number of older people we lost.
I do not accept that. Why are we sending somebody on a trip of 100 miles or 150 miles to an acute hospital before sending that person back? Covid-19 was in Mayo University Hospital as well. Yesterday we had the example of a 95-year-old man who could have been catheterised by a GP and admitted to Belmullet hospital in his local area but instead he was forced to go to Mayo University Hospital, where he took up an acute bed. It was completely unnecessary.
In the hospital itself the X-ray, chiropody and physiotherapy services have been cut. In Erris we believe Covid-19 is being used as an excuse to shut all the services. Belmullet had 40 beds before the Deputy's party cut that number in half. Now the Government is coming along again to cut that number. The only thing that will convince us in Erris that the Government is in any way genuine about us having a hospital and services in the area is if capital is put into them. Doing that will give us the hospital we need in the area.
I ask the Minister to be honest with us. This is like death by a thousand cuts so please be honest with us about what is going on.
Covid-19 is a reality and we are living with it on a daily basis. As I stated, we had 357 cases today, with three people losing their lives. I do not believe that for any reason a medical person would ask somebody to travel that distance unless absolutely necessary.
I have said that no community hospital around the country is taking direct admissions currently. This is best practice and a change in this process will be decided by NPHET and people above my pay grade. I am also aware the HSE has advised a number of specific challenges for Belmullet hospital, including infrastructure issues with the building, which were highlighted by an infection control review and a HIQA inspection of the facility. Infection prevention and control is now paramount and we want to ensure the safety of all patients. This is the reason people are not being admitted directly to community hospitals and are instead attending acute hospitals first.
I thank the Minister of State but I still do not believe this is not being used as an excuse. We have excellent staff in Belmullet hospital and it has the required facilities. We needed some minor works done and it has taken over a year to recruit staff for that. There is a line of matters that are unacceptable. Why is the eye clinic finished at Belmullet and what excuse is there for it? There is always one excuse after another given for services not being provided in the area.
This runs completely against the concepts in Sláintecare, as the Minister of State knows. I know we are living in different times but it makes no sense whatever to take out all these services. The Minister of State mentioned carers earlier but there is no respite or clapping for them. It is not the case that their shift will finish at 8 p.m. and their work is 24-7. The Government has nothing to offer the people of Erris when it comes to health services. We are undermining GPs. Why do we not have proper testing and tracing in order that we can make referrals to the hospital? I ask the Minister of State to ask the Minister to look at this again.
I will bring the Deputy's concerns to the Minister but I have an update for her. A meeting was scheduled to take place this afternoon in Belmullet district hospital between personnel from HSE estates, the chief officer of community healthcare west and the head of services for older people services in order to review the infrastructural deficits within the district hospital and to assess and quantify the levels of work required to address these structural deficits. An action plan has been developed locally to address the issues identified at the district hospital in the HIQA report other than the infrastructural issues.
The Deputy makes a very good case. I will take it back to the Minister and I will examine it myself.
Deputy Higgins is not in the Chamber to ask Question No. 41, so I will move on to Question No. 42 in the name of Deputy Durkan. I am not sure what numbers the Ministers are working from, but the initial question from Deputy Daly was grouped with Question No. 47 in my notes. We are on different number schemes. Deputy Durkan has 30 seconds.
