Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 11 Mar 1993

Vol. 427 No. 8

Adjournment Debate. - Cavan General Hospital.

Mr. Boylan

Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for allowing me to raise this matter. I appreciate the presence of Deputy Dempsey, the Minister of State to reply to this serious matter. I am annoyed that the Minister for Health did not see fit to come here to respond.

I am concerned at conditions at Cavan General Hospital. Due to the conditions there the general public formed an opinion of the hospital that does not reflect the excellence of the hospital, its surgeons, consultant physicians, doctors, nurses and lay staff. I wish to place on record my appreciation of their great work which goes far beyond the call of duty.

We have an excellent medical unit in Cavan General Hospital with two conscientious hard-working, concerned physicians in Dr. Frank Walker and Dr. Noel Smith. They are doing an excellent job particularly in the light of the financial constraints placed on them.

Immense pressure is now being brought to bear on them to reduce their bed occupancy rates and to close more beds. This is unacceptable in the running of a proper service as patients are already being discharged too early. It is common to hear of patients being readmitted on the day after discharge because they were sent home too soon. That is not the fault of the consultant.

I have received letters from three medical practitioners who were called to visit patients whom they had sent to the general hospital the previous day. They could not believe that the patients had been sent home and they had to make emergency arrangements to have the patients readmitted. This caused great annoyance to the families of the patients.

I received a telephone call only an hour ago about an elderly patient who is presently in the Mater Hospital in Dublin. That patient was in Cavan General Hospital, was sent for further treatment to the Mater Hospital and wishes to return to Cavan because she is terminally ill. The doctor in Cavan General Hospital is anxious to accommodate her but he has no bed available. This is not good enough. I will give the name of the patient to the Minister.

Cost factors must be taken into consideration, but I can assure the Minister that he will find there is no more cost conscious hospital in the country than Cavan General Hospital. In regard to running costs over the past five years, Cavan General Hospital comes out on top. There should not be such a thing as a bed quota. Emergencies will arise and there will be outbreaks of influenza. There will be serious traffic accidents and so on and beds will be needed. The beds are availalbe in the hospital, they are in wards that are locked with padlocks. That is not acceptable.

The North Eastern Health Board is one of the most cost conscious boards in the country and for its diligence it is being heavily penalised in the context of the contributions it gets from the State. At £38 per capita the amount of State funding it receives is the second lowest in the country. The reduction represents a loss of £12 million per annum to the area. I have no doubt but that is the reason sufficient finance is not being made available to Cavan General Hospital.

The people in Cavan are extremely diligent. A number of those mentioned are involved in community fund-raising projects. They are on call for 24 hours a day and are prepared to meet community groups and fund raisers. The Minister needs to ensure that those people are provided with the proper facilities which will not be abused and will give the people of the area the service to which they are entitled.

Mr. Dempsey

I should like to convey apologies on behalf of the Minister for Health who could not be here this evening. I acknowledge what the Deputy said about the staff of the hospital. I am in the North Eastern Health Board region and am aware of the problems of Cavan General Hospital which has a very good reputation. I am sure the Minister would like me to acknowledge that in the House.

I would also like to thank the Deputy for bringing the three cases to my attention. If he gives me the full details I will convey them to the Minister. I will also convey them to the chief executive officer of the health board whom I will be meeting shortly to deal with other matters.

I would like to thank the Deputy for giving me an opportunity to clarify the position regarding Cavan General Hospital.

The Deputy will be aware, of course, that the provision and organisation of services generally at Cavan General Hospital is a matter for the North Eastern Health Board in the first instance. The Minister feels it is important to explain also that the admission of a patient to hospital and the discharge of a patient from hospital are clinical decisions for the consultant in charge of the case. With regard to length of stay in hospitals generally, it is necessary to be aware of the success of modern surgical techniques and equipment in reducing lengths of stay and indeed eliminating the need for overnight stay in hospital in some cases.

The Deputy will be interested to learn that the average length of stay for surgical patients at Cavan General Hospital in 1992 was in line with that in other hospitals in the region. The North Eastern Health Board has assured the Minister that there is absolutely no basis for the suggestion that surgical services at Cavan General Hospital have been or are to be curtailed. In fact, the opposite is the case — the board is striving to provide the best quality surgical service possible at the hospital. Surgical activity levels at the hospital rose from 1,888 patients treated in 1991 to 2,137 in 1992, an increase or more than 13 per cent. The board is, in fact, planning for a further increase in surgical activity levels at Cavan General Hospital in 1993.

The Deputy will also be interested to learn that interviews will be held shortly for the post of temporary consultant surgeon at the hospital arising from the recent sad death of Mr. Hanna, consultant surgeon there. I take this opportunity to pay tribute again to the dedication and the commitment Mr. Hanna had to the hospital and to the people in his care.

The Minister trusts that all of these matters will help reassure the Deputy and, indeed, the people of Cavan, that there is absolutely no threat to surgical services at Cavan, quite the contrary.

The Dáil adjourned at 5.20 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Friday, 12 March 1993.