A NUMBER of hospitals would find their situation “very challenging” because of necessary changes, Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Dáil. He said the budget deficit this year for hospitals alone was €99 million over target.

“It is not possible to do everything one would wish,” he added.

“We are faced with reality and a requirement to have patient safety at the centre of what we do and changes will be made in order to meet that requirement.” It would be far easier for him to stand up in the Dáil and say everything was hunky-dory in every hospital.

“It is not,” he said. “Because of the situation in which we now find ourselves, changes must take place and those changes must be carried out with a focus on patient care and the delivery of the highest standard of care by professionals with supervision and adequate accountability to this House.”

Mr Kenny said Minister for Health James Reilly had made it clear he could not stand over a situation where professional advice indicated that delivery of services would be unsafe because of a lack of supervision for junior hospital doctors.

Gerry Adams (SF) said the Minister had said some hospitals could not be safely manned.

“I asked him to name the hospitals, but he has not done that.”

Fianna Fáil in power, he said, had closed emergency services in Dundalk, Monaghan, Nenagh, Ennis and Navan. Fine Gael and Labour were closing them in Roscommon, Mallow, Bantry, Loughlinstown and many other places.

“The Taoiseach accused me of scaremongering. He should address what is scaring people.”

Mr Kenny insisted there was a world of difference between the parties now in government and their predecessors.

“The first difference is that we have a Minister for Health who will change the system to one which will deliver adequate standards of proper healthcare for all patients,” he said. “That cannot and will not happen overnight.”

Mr Kenny said the system that had been allowed to evolve over so many years was wasteful and had not been up to the standard required in so many areas, as the evidence had shown.

The Government had set out a programme to change the structure of the delivery of health services, where patient care was central and paramount, and that would apply right across the State.