Letterkenny Hospital bed capacity
Deputy McConalogue raised the hospital's request for funding to open 20 beds and reduce trolley waits. The Taoiseach said he did not have an answer for Letterkenny but listed additional beds opened elsewhere and said more would follow.
On the Government's commitment to increase bed capacity, I again raise the issue of Letterkenny University Hospital. Last week my party leader and I raised with the Taoiseach a submission the hospital had made last summer to the Health Service Executive and, through it, the Government seeking €1.8 million to fund the staff required to open 20 beds. The hospital has still not received a response to its request. As a result, 20, 30 or 40 patients must wait daily on trolleys for admission to the hospital. The maximum capacity protocol at the hospital has been in place consistently since 27 December, meaning outpatient operations cannot proceed and those waiting for hip operations are having them cancelled. Waiting lists are increasing as a consequence, which is simply unacceptable. I hope the Taoiseach will answer my question, rather than fudging the issue by passing it back to the Minister for Health, with whom it has been raised a number of times. Will the money sought by the hospital be forthcoming and will an additional 20 beds be opened? Will the Government address the immense pressure on the hospital and its staff and the unacceptable position facing patients every day?
Comment on this
I do not have an answer in respect of Letterkenny University Hospital. However, I can say that the following hospitals are included in respect of the 170 additional beds that have been opened this winter. Twenty-two beds have been opened in St. Vincent's University Hospital; 25 have been opened in Drogheda; 17 have been opened in Limerick; 28 have been opened in Galway; 20 have been opened in Beaumont Hospital; 23 have been opened in St. James's Hospital; 24 have been opened in the Mater Hospital; and 11 have been opened in Naas General Hospital. Additional beds will be provided this year in St. Luke's Hospital, Kilkenny; University Hospital Waterford and Cork University Hospital. A new emergency department will also open in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, with a modular build to open in south Tipperary, as I indicated earlier. We must insist on these additional capacity developments being linked with changes to hospital work practices and systems. Despite promises that capacity makes a difference, it very often does not make a blind bit of difference, unless hospitals change the way they work.