Ms Breda Crehan-Roche:

The Senator mentioned Clifden and I look forward to meeting him there quite shortly with a number of other local politicians and representatives. We are committed to the nursing unit there and we are reconfiguring 40 beds, as the Senator knows, with ten for respite care, ten for dementia care and 20 long-stay beds. We will meet the Senator there. We will look at integrated care programmes and we have X-ray there. We work closely with colleagues in Saolta and we have step-down beds.

In talking about Galway, at the Merlin Park unit we have 13 short-stay beds and 13 respite beds. There is much integrated work with step-down beds so there are beds in the community to support people. It is about having services near to people. We will meet the Senator shortly and speaking about our plans for older people, including what services can be there. We have joint appointments now between Community Healthcare West and Saolta about consultant posts and there will be visiting and outreach clinics etc. We will speak more and I look forward to meeting the Senator there.