John Cregan (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

I take this opportunity to raise an important matter for my constituency, namely, the absence of the required medical cover in the rehabilitation unit of St. Ita's community hospital, Newcastle West. This is a fine community hospital that has served the people of west Limerick over many years. St. Ita's covers west Limerick and St. Camillus's covers east Limerick. St. Ita's is a little remote from the main centre of medical attention, Limerick Regional Hospital, and has experienced difficulty with regard to cover over the past number of months. This puts the consultant geriatrician in a very difficult position, because he must now decide what category of patient to place in the fine rehabilitation unit in Newcastle West. He must be extremely careful because of the risk involved. I understand the families of the patients going there now have to sign a disclaimer. It is not right that this should happen because we lack medical cover and have no extra facility.

The situation is that people are transferred to St. Ita's having been acutely ill in Limerick Regional Hospital. Approximately 350 patients per year are transferred to the acute rehabilitation unit in the Newcastle West hospital and as a result no bed is being blocked in the Limerick Regional Hospital. What reward do we get from the HSE for this? We get no reward or credit but only suffer a lack in medical cover. As a result, the risk is increasing all the time. I appeal to the HSE to try to ensure when allocating resources that we save this unit.

I do not want to use threatening language or frighten people about the future of the unit, but we must stand up and demand the necessary, additional medical resources required. We must stand up and fight for the provision of a basic extra facility, rather than wrap elderly patients in a blanket in the middle of the night, throw them into an ambulance and transfer them 25 miles to Limerick Regional Hospital. That should not happen. Just a small amount of resources would go a long way towards ensuring we can maintain this fantastic service for the elderly people of west Limerick. I appeal to the Minister to intervene with the HSE to try to ensure we arrive at a solution.

We are doing all the right things. I sat on the health board with the Acting Chairman for many years, where we raised the case because we felt we were coming from a low base. We did not have the required level of consultants or staff in our hospital, but we always did the right thing and brought our budget in on time. But for the good graces of the people involved in St. Ita's hospital, the geriatrician David Clynch, the matron, Eileen O'Connor, Sr. Eileen Crowley who heads the rehabilitative unit and all the nursing staff and others there, the unit would not be operating now. Their efforts should be acknowledged and the necessary supports put in place.

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