Dr. Pat Nash:

The average length of stay in Galway is short. The exact figure is 5.7 days. When one generalises it across medicine and surgery, overall, it is 4.3 days but one needs to break down by medicine and surgery to get meaningful results. It is short because, traditionally, Galway did not have major problems with delaying and discharging patients into the community. This has become more of an issue over the past 12 months. The Merlin Park site is a large one. The profile of care delivered on the site has changed in the past four years because it was not felt appropriate for acute care on selected medicine to be admitted there so that put on additional pressure. We opened some capacity in Galway in 2012, and it was necessary to ensure and maintain the safety of care there. Speaking as a clinician, we made a submission as a group of clinicians in Galway to this committee that there is overwhelming support for investment in infrastructure and a new hospital building in Galway. We need a new emergency department, but an emergency department is only the front door of a hospital. It needs to be comprehensive and look at the entire hospital to be able to manage.