Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will get through my questions as quickly as I can. There is a lot going on in the health service and I appreciate everybody's hard work. The Minister is aware of the tragic case of Vivienne Murphy, the young child in Cork who passed away from Strep A. One of the issues her parents raised was the lack of ICU facilities for children outside of Dublin. Has a decision been made to put a paediatric unit into Cork University Hospital, CUH and, if so, is there a timeline for that?

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, has described the situation in Mercy University Hospital, Cork and CUH as being out of control, with 132 patients on trolleys in the two hospitals last week. Will the Minister comment on that? The emergency department in Mercy hospital is based in Portakabins. I was there last January or February with my father. It is not good enough in this day and age to have people sitting in a Portakabin.

I have written to the Department and to Mercy hospital about a man who has had an operation cancelled three times. The first time was because of the Covid crisis. On the next two occasions, the doctor rescheduled the operation for different reasons. Most recently, this man got less than 24 hours' notice of the cancellation. He has an appointment next Tuesday. I met him one day recently and he can barely walk. He is a carer for his wife who is also sick. He is in constant pain and has been waiting three years for an operation that has been cancelled three times. What can be done for people like him? I thank Deputy Michael Collins for all the work he does in getting people up to Belfast for treatment. I was contacted by a woman in Farranree who needed eye surgery but did not want to go to Belfast for it. The South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital does cataract surgery but this woman has to go to Belfast. That does not make sense when there is a facility in Cork that could do the operation.

The time is running out. One of the issues I am most concerned about concerns the SouthDoc service in Cork city. There is a clinic on the Old Mallow Road and another at the Kinsale Road Roundabout. There is talk of having one facility in the city centre. When SouthDoc was closed before, more patients were going to emergency departments for treatment. We are trying to keep people out of hospital emergency departments.

Is there any timeline for the delivery of the new elective hospital in Cork? I have asked a lot of questions. If the Minister does not get through them all, he might give me a note or get back to me later.