David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A new wing at University Hospital Waterford, the Dunmore wing, was completed in July and has been kitted out. It consists of five floors, with the bottom two due to be used to provide a new palliative care services unit, the first such unit in the south east. It is to be operated by the CHO. The top three floors will have 72 acute beds which will be managed by the hospital. A joint application for revenue funding has been made to staff the beds and the palliative care unit, but they have not yet received one cent or hired the staff necessary to open the services. Those involved have been given a tour of the facility and say it is first class, but it cannot be opened. Now we are being told that it is being opened on a phased basis, which means that it is not really being opened at all. There is a value for money issue and an issue about the process. If capital funding is made available, revenue funding should be allocated in parallel such that when something is built, it is opened. It is crazy that it has been built and the equipment provided but not opened. Can we write and ask why there is a delay in opening it?