Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was challenged to accompany Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny on his visit to Beaumont Hospital in north Dublin yesterday evening and see the problems in the accident and emergency unit for himself.
Mr Ahern declined, adding later that he regularly visits hospitals throughout the State, including Beaumont.
Mr Kenny said it was about time that members of the Government were exposed to what was happening on the ground in the health service: "You are secreted away." He said they could meet people waiting on trolleys and putting up "with the remnants of what was supposed to be a world class health service".
Mr Ahern said he understood that Beaumont Hospital was having a bad day. "So if you are going around chasing ambulances - well that is a bad way to be, I have to say."
Mr Kenny said Beaumont had made a statement asking people not to attend A&E unless it was an emergency. This was because of the extreme pressure on its services, with 52 patients waiting for admission. "This is an appalling situation," he said.
Mr Kenny said that figures from the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) showed there were 392 people on trolleys across the State. That was not unique.
"We have had 10 years of this from Fianna Fáil and the PDs. We have overcrowding, the spread of infectious diseases, hundreds of people on trolleys every month, massaging of those figures, thousands of operations cancelled every year."
Mr Ahern said the HSE continues to report significant improvements in the number of patients awaiting admission.
"The average number of patients on trolleys, awaiting admission in February to date, is more than 50 per cent lower than February last year. However, a small number of hospitals, particularly Beaumont, are having difficulties in the delivery of accident and emergency services.
"There has been an average of 19 patients a day awaiting admission to Beaumont during this month. At 8 o'clock this morning, there were 40 patients on trolleys at Beaumont awaiting admission, five of whom were waiting longer than 24 hours. It is still a considerable improvement on last year."
Mr Ahern said that one of the main problems affecting Beaumont was the unacceptably high number of patients awaiting discharge for a more appropriate setting. The HSE was working with the hospital to address the issue.
When Dr Jerry Cowley (Independent, Mayo) insisted on intervening to highlight the situation in Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar, he was ordered to leave the House.
Mr Kenny outlined a number of case histories. An 86-year-old Galway woman had to wait two years for a seat which would allow her to take a bath after being placed on an emergency list by the HSE. In Cork, a person had received a hospital appointment for July 15th, 2008, and it had notedthat "if you are unable to attend, please notify the outpatients at the above number so that another patient may benefit from the vacant time".
