I thank you, Sir, for the opportunity to raise this important issue. This motion arises from two separate incidents of attempted burglary at a geriatric hospital in County Louth. It is not necessary to labour the seriousness of the implications of an attempted burglary of a hospital which cares for elderly people. This is happening in a context where, in many parts of the country crime is effectively out of control and those who indulge in this type of activity can do so at will. There is no doubt that an attempt to break into a hospital and perpetrate a robbery is the lowest level to which crime can reach.
It is necessary to have ease of access to hospitals for relatives of patients but the time has come to balance such access against the risks involved in having an open door policy. We simply cannot allow the elderly or the sick to be exposed to situations where people can break into hospitals and attempt to rob patients of their belongings. While hospitals are most vulnerable at night, there is also no immunity from those practices during the day.
What type of training or tuition is available to hospital staff to cater for attempted robberies? Is there a particular drill? Are the staffing levels in our hospitals such that adequate protection can be given? The time has come to review the idea — it is a new concept — of examining security in our hospitals. We used to regard them as safe havens and that those who indulged and involved themselves in crime did not touch them. Apparently, that safety seems to have disappeared.
I do not know if the particular incident to which I am referring is an isolated case; there may have been attempted robberies in other hospitals. I ask the Minister of State to seriously consider asking the health boards to examine the safety and security of our hospitals to ensure that these types of incidents do not happen again.
