People Before Profit representative Laura Gaskell for Tallaght South is calling on the Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly TD, to take radical action in order to fix the chronic problems in Ireland’s public health emergency departments. Laura, called for the Minister to clearly state what new proposals he and his department have in order to address issues in emergency departments ahead of the winter period.
The call comes as reports in the Irish Examiner showed that over 27,000 people left Ireland’s emergency departments before receiving treatment between July and September of this year. Laura, said that these figures were a disgrace and that the Minister and the Department of Health should hang their heads in shame. Laura said: “The reports that over 27,000 people left emergency departments in three months of this year without getting proper treatment is a disgrace. The Minister and the Department need to hang their heads in shame.
“The Minister now needs to come forward with new and radical proposals to fix the crisis in our EDs. In People Before Profit, we believe that this must start with a mass recruitment and retention campaign for our public health service. “The government needs to get real about capacity. We need to be adding 1,000 acute beds and 250 ICU beds in order to clear the waiting lists and backlogs.”
