Under-fire Ahern defends health policies

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern was subjected to a barrage of angry and sustained criticism in the Dáil yesterday over the 'trolley' crisis in hospital accident and emergency units.

As protests over the health services took place outside Leinster House, the Taoiseach strongly defended his Government's health policies, amid withering attacks from opposition leaders over the shortage of beds in Irish hospitals.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny referred to the huge pressures placed on the Mater and Beaumont Hospitals by a new outbreak of the winter vomiting bug.

Accusing the Government of failing to deal with the crisis, he said overcrowding had ensured the standard of cleanliness in Irish hospitals "ranged from outright filth to being revolting."

He said he had met a woman at the Dáil protest exhibiting severe symptoms of the virus.

"What are you going to do about the standards of cleanliness of hospitals which have become havens for the transmission of bugs and viruses?" he demanded.

Mr Ahern acknowledged there was a problem with A&E departments in Dublin's larger hospitals but argued the Government had transferred 520 patients inappropriately placed in beds in acute hospitals, to step-down beds in nursing homes.

He went on to say the Government had also provided 900 additional beds.

With respect to A&E facilities, he said there were "different arrangements in different hospitals".

"Some hospitals do not have difficulties. All the large hospitals have these difficulties," he said.

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said there were 3,500 fewer beds in Irish hospitals than there were in 1990.

He referred to a patient in the Mater Hospital being treated in the staff canteen and a young man on a drip who was forced to lie on two chairs.

Mr Rabbitte said this week 70 beds in acute hospitals were being used inappropriately while countrywide 132 patients were lying on hospital trolleys.

"Where are the 3,000 beds promised in the National Health Strategy?" he asked.

Green Party leader Trevor Sargent said the time frame for providing the 3,000 extra beds was not realistic and needed to be re-assessed.

"People have a right to be apoplectic with anger. There is an 84-year-old woman left waiting and still waiting on a trolley in the area where bedpans were emptied," he said.

Mr Ahern told the Dáil he had been aware of the problem for 30 years.

"The most immediate issue is to provide as many places as we can for stand-down facilities for patients who do not need an acute hospital bed," he said.