Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the limited time I have, can Dr. O'Connell share with me his observations on St. John's Hospital and the hospitals in Ennis and Nenagh, which are now mainly doing elective work? I have raised the issue of the accident and emergency service in the past. The new emergency department that is under construction in Limerick is very welcome. It appears that it will not be up and running until 2016. Could more be done to free up beds in the regional hospital in Limerick? I am aware that people have been transferred from that hospital to St. John's Hospital. We need to take the pressure off the accident and emergency department in the regional hospital in Limerick until the new emergency department is opened. HIQA said recently that the existing department is not fit for purpose. We need to do something to bridge the gap over the next year - this coming winter and the following winter. Dr. O'Connell is probably aware of the proposals that have been made. The medical assessment unit that is operating at the hospital is, in effect, a day facility. If it were to be converted into a temporary inpatient facility adjacent to the accident and emergency department, perhaps it could relieve some of the current problems. Dr. O'Connell is familiar with the ongoing pressures that have resulted from the reconfiguration within the region. I refer, for example, to the decrease in the number of beds. The emergency department at the regional hospital in Limerick is now the only such department in the mid-west region. There is no other level 3 hospital in the region. Everything is being funnelled into one hospital. Dr. O'Connell might give me his overall perspective. I suppose I am trying to be constructive. This is an ongoing issue in Limerick and the mid-west as a whole. I supported the proposal to move the existing 30-bed medical assessment unit to another part of the hospital to allow an area that is beside the current accident and emergency department to be used as an inpatient facility - a type of a spillover from the accident and emergency department - for the next year until the new emergency department is up and running.