Dáil live: Tánaiste says Wexford hospital fire a ‘big blow’ to health services in the south east

The fire at Wexford General Hospital on Wednesday afternoon is a “big blow” to the health services in the south east, Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said.

Mr Martin has told the Dáil the implications of the fire “could have been horrendous” and he “took relief” from the State’s emergency services working so well.

“I would like to think that we could now, from the ashes of this fire, as we rebuild, we do it properly in a modern context, create a 21st century facility in Wexford,” he said.

The Tánaiste said “everything that can be done, will be done” in terms of restoring services “as quickly as possible” but added it would be “challenging”.

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A “major emergency” was declared at the 280-bed hospital, and an investigation is underway into where and how the fire started. Some 100 ambulances were involved in the effort to evacuate patients to other hospitals.

Some 29 people, out of 200 patients present when the blaze broke out, remained at the site on Thursday morning.

Mr Martin said the State owed “an extraordinary debt of service to all of the essential services” and that he was “shocked” by the “disastrous fire”.

The Tánaiste was responding to Sinn Féin deputy leader Pearse Doherty and Labour TD Brendan Howlin during Leaders’ Questions on Thursday.

Mr Martin said a local emergency plan had been activated and services were still in “emergency phase” in terms of managing patients.

The Fianna Fáil leader said the HSE and the Minister for Health would work with Government colleagues in respect of the provision of services in the interim period and that a crisis management team was meeting on Thursday.

He said an assessment had to be made in terms of the implications of the fire on the structure of the hospital and the impact on services.

“I think we have to allow the HSE do the assessment and following that assessment then they can plan out the programme of interventions,” he said.

Mr Doherty said the priority must now be to support patients and their families and that the disruption would cause “much distress and anxiety to people in Wexford and the surrounding region”.

“It’s essential that while the healthcare service responds to the crisis, that Government responds quickly to support the health service and put in place additional capacity and alternative care plans for these patients,” he said.

[ Patients remaining at Wexford General Hospital after blaze may be treated on site ]

The Donegal TD said there needed to be “really strong lines of communication” with patients and their families and called for additional capacity for the region to “manage the fallout”.

“Government needs to look at all options available in the short term,” Mr Doherty said.

“You need to be looking at community capacity, private hospitals, nursing homes; the full healthcare capacity of the region must be marshaled and mobilised to support the State’s response.”

Mr Howlin said there was a “palpable sense of relief” in Wexford that a “historic tragedy” had been averted due to the dedicated professionalism of the emergency services.

The Wexford TD said the challenge now was how care plans would be continued for patients of the hospital and region and this had to be done in “a seamless and uninterrupted way”.

“Clear information has to be provided to the 165,000 people in Wexford who depend on their hospital for vital services,” he said.

“Expectant mothers who are looking forward to delivering yellow bellies in their hospital - what’s going to happen, what arrangements are made for them?

“Patients in the middle of treatment for cancer, or for any number of other life threatening illnesses and of course the people of Wexford will continue to experience today and tomorrow and the day after, heart attacks, road traffic accidents and other urgent issues that require timely medical responses.”

The parents of a three-year-old child in the west of Ireland have been waiting on blood test results for 10 months, the Dáil has heard.

Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice said the blood test had to be sent to England but that the parents “never got a reply or a result”.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin asked for details of the case adding that a very specific assertion had been made that “would certainly cause me great concern”.

Mr Martin said the test may have been sent to England for specific reasons but a 10-month wait “shouldn’t happen” and that “we need to get to the bottom of that fairly quickly”.

Speaking during Leaders’ Questions on Thursday, Mr Fitzmaurice said in the Roscommon area his office had been “inundated” over the last 8 to 10 months by parents in relation to CAMHS, ADHD and autism services, “where the whole system seems to be in disarray”.

“We have a child of three and a half that had a blood test that had to be sent to England to basically see could they diagnose what was wrong. Ten months later…those parents have never got a reply or a result,” the Roscommon-Galway TD said.

“We have children that first of all haven’t been assessed, no care plan put in place, and we have a lot of children with no OT services, no speech and language [services].”

Mr Fitzmaurice said that he had “parents crying on phones” who were “desperate to get services that they are not getting”.

He added there seemed to be “total chaos” in the Roscommon area and that when the issue was raised with the HSE they put it down to staff shortages.

In response, Mr Martin said the situation of the three-year-old child called for clarity and a response and asked the Independent TD for specific details to be provided to him.

The Tánaiste said there was a problem in the recruitment and retention of therapists for child services and other sections of the health service appeared to be recruiting more quickly than others.