Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I met a number of concerned people yesterday, at the occasion of an opening of an office for Deputy Naughten outside Athlone. We have always held the view that small hospitals have a real future in a restructured and revamped health system, and Roscommon is no different from that. HIQA has stated it is unsafe to continue the accident and emergency unit in its current form. For that reason, compounded by the difficulties in recruiting non-consultant hospital doctors, this system will change after 11 July. There are several implications arising from this, which the Minister for Health has set out.

The Government's priority on acute hospitals is to ensure there is safe, high quality care for patients, provided at the most appropriate location. As the Deputy knows, there is not 24 hour cover for anaesthetics in Roscommon and the medical evidence now available is that trauma patients being attended to by paramedics on site then transferred to a high volume hospital have an increased chance of living, which is the major consideration for every person here. Those are the reasons.

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