Today I wish to raise the urgent need for an elective surgery hub at Midlands General Hospital in Tullamore. This is an issue I have been raising locally since March and I also sought a meeting with the Minister for Health at the time. I received a letter from a senior member of the medical team at the hospital that highlighted the issue around this case.

At the time, the hospital was inundated with trauma patients, leading to a situation where the facility had zero capacity to offer elective surgery for knee or hip replacement procedures. It had no access to an elective ward because it had to accommodate and facilitate emergencies that were pouring in through the emergency department. This is entirely unacceptable as the volume of patients being seen at Midland Regional Hospital has increased 40% year on year. By any objective analysis, this is a huge volume for a model 3 hospital.

The core of the problem resides in the fact that there has been no meaningful roll-out or increase in elective surgery capacity in Tullamore or the midlands for the last decade. While the staff at Midland Regional Hospital are working heroically to meet the level of demand, and I commend them on all they are doing, unfortunately, it is clear that they have hit a wall and unless there is improved capacity is put into the system, things will only get worse for local patients who will continue to be sent to other counties to access basic services through the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

I am also aware that Midland Regional Hospital has seen a 29% increase in attendances by people over 75 years compared with the same period last year. As a result, the emergency department has been under significant and ongoing pressure. Scheduled care activity has also been impacted as a result of this increased demand.

This is a major problem with a very clear and simple solution, that is, to provide a commitment to the people of Tullamore and the Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore to provide a dedicated elective surgery hub to the benefit of all in the midlands region. Without this solution, the knock-on impact to service provision and delayed care will continue to get only worse. The Government has just announced one of the largest ever budgets for the health service. What fraction of that allocation will be directed to Tullamore hospital? Will consideration be given to an elective surgery hub?

The Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and others have secured record levels of investment in our health system. This is making a difference for patients, families and communities across our country. Over €25 billion is being spent in 2025. The recent budget will see a further €180 million in new measures, including support for cancer care, cardiovascular and stroke care as well as rare diseases. The impact of this investment in healthcare by the Government is seen in the very significant achievements Ireland has made in the last decade in health outcomes. We are among a small group of only seven EU countries where life expectancy is above 82 years, and we are seeing the impact of that across a number of metrics.

We know we have to do more, which is why the Minister for Health has set out a very ambitious capital plan to address the demand for surgery and an elective plan within that. He has set out the development of four elective hospitals at two sites in Dublin, one in Connolly and one at the children’s hospital in Crumlin, one in Cork and one in Galway. Surgical hubs are also being delivered in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Waterford. This complements the wider focus of the Government on the primary care system, with many patients who would have otherwise presented to emergency departments being triaged through community healthcare and supported through the community health service with chronic disease management and a whole other range of areas.

We have also increased bed capacity. We have constructed over 1,000 new and replacement community-based beds throughout the country. Budget 2025 provided funding for 160 new community beds and 455 upgraded community beds. It is planned to provide an additional 3,000 new hospital beds and 350 replacement beds by 2031.

The Government is providing unprecedented resources supporting the recruitment of front-line workers in healthcare, including doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, while also addressing the capital needs in our health system with a changing demographic. The Minister is advancing that through acute hospitals, some of which are in the midlands region, through the wider provision of new beds in the hospital groups.

The Minister will be able to provide detail on further plans on the Deputy’s specific question on an elective hospital for the midlands. I have set out the briefing I have received on the various surgical hubs and also the elective capacity planned, which has a good regional spread. It is important that patients in the midlands and elsewhere have access to improved elective care. In future, our overall capital investment will ensure we have a greater number of elective beds in the hospital system, so that the acute hospital system can manage the presentations that occur day to day. This will allow greater certainty for patients who are waiting for elective care on an ongoing basis.

I thank the Minister for his reply. He mentioned record levels of investment but we need to see more investment in Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore. It is disappointing that the Minister for Health did not respond to my request to work constructively with him and have a meeting with him on this very serious issue. Health is important. When elderly patients cannot access care at their local hospital we know there is a problem. When senior medical members of a team are flagging to their TD that there is a problem there is a problem. It is not just me saying there is a problem. The medical staff are saying it and elderly patients who cannot access local care are telling me there is an issue and they have to go to other counties for elective surgery. That is wrong. I hope the Minister for Health will respond constructively and give me the opportunity I have sought to meet him about this issue because it cannot be ignored.

I commend again the excellent staff at every level in Midland Regional Hospital who have worked tirelessly to help patients. They reduced waiting lists again last year for the second year in a row. I commend them on that but that was partly because patients were forced to go to other counties for care. I hope the situation will change and the Government will show more political will and be constructive by listening to other TDs who are only trying to do their best and do the right thing by the electorate.

I agree with the Deputy about the huge amount of work that front-line staff do across our hospital system. I commend them on the work they do in difficult circumstances.

The Government’s investment in healthcare is achieving outcomes. There is faster access to services, with numbers of people on trolleys in the first eight months of the year down by 11%, for example. That demonstrates the commitment and ongoing progress we are seeing in our health system. There has been enormous progress in Tullamore and the midlands group on with regard to the numbers of patients on trolleys, for example. This demonstrates the impact of investment and the unprecedented resources provided for the recruitment of front-line staff is having. Similarly, there are plans for further staff recruitment in the Midland Regional Hospital group and Tullamore for next year. That builds on the progress we have made as regards the trolley count in Tullamore, for example, where we are seeing an impact in wait times. We have more to do, however. That is why in the budget, the Minister is keen to complement the investment in front-line health workers with capital investment for the future and thousands more beds being developed right across the country in the coming years.