Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Byrne for being in constant contact with me on this matter and for visiting St. John's Hospital with me, with which I know she has a long affinity and connection. I know also, because the Senator raised it in this House a few weeks ago, that her view is that St. John's can and should do more and that it has a proposal for a 120 bed ward block, to which we will give consideration. We first need to do the infrastructural upgrade of that hospital in terms of fire safety and so on. The Senator will be aware that those projects are proceeding.

On the scanner, we have had a useful conversation this morning on the benefits of an additional scanner to the mid-west region in terms of trolley numbers. The HSE and the Department will stress test that proposal and we will see if we can make progress in that regard. On the MS nurse, while I am not familiar with the specifics, I am aware that the Senator has been championing that recruitment for some time. An additional 68 staff were hired in the hospital in the last five weeks, more than 40 of whom are in the area of nursing. I will undertake to make inquiries in regard to the MS nurse recruitment and I will hand over now to Mr. Reid to comment further on the mid-west in general.