Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

The motion speaks to the very notion of capacity and that there will be no further loss of capacity. We support that very notion. In regard to the reconfiguration process, in particular as it pertains to hospitals such as Mallow General Hospital, there is often the accusation that we are being overtly parochial. It must be remembered that a hospital like Mallow General Hospital will serve more than 100,000 people and will have approximately 100 GPs referring to it.

Mallow General Hospital is under the umbrella of Cork University Hospital but there is a deficiency in that Cork University Hospital has never viewed Mallow General Hospital as being under its umbrella or its ambit. The Health Information and Quality Authority is in the hospital currently. A case is being made in regard to Mallow General Hospital by all of the stakeholders, including the hospital representative groups, the GPs and the consultants, that we will accept changes. We accept change management and that there are budgetary constraints but we want a more lateral view to be taken by the HSE in regard to the future capacity of Mallow General Hospital.

We will accept changes in regard to Mallow General Hospital but one can do that and save money without reducing capacity. What is needed is for the sister hospital, Cork University Hospital, and the HSE to think more laterally about how they deploy resources from the centre to the margins to serve this community such that one does not have a bottleneck effect, that is, a reduction of capacity in Mallow General Hospital filtering through to Cork University Hospital and thereby undermining the capacity which will not be there because the budgetary provision will not be made to allow for increased capacity at Cork University Hospital.

We speak common sense. Large swathes of the population are served by the hospitals mentioned in the motion. We noted that Mallow General Hospital was not mentioned in the Fine Gael motion but I am sure that was an oversight on its part. We speak for those hospitals and support the motion in that regard.

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