Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The situation in the accident and emergency department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda requires the immediate attention of the HSE and the Department of Health. The Minister will know from our various conversations over the past three years that I am proud of my local hospital. I am proud of its staff and I know the staff quite rightly take great pride in the service they provide to the people of Drogheda and for the people across the north east and north County Dublin.

The hospital has evolved considerably in recent years from being a local acute hospital and maternity service to a major regional centre of excellence, the major trauma centre for the north east with a busy, newly built emergency department dealing with more patients than ever. The Minister will be aware of the longer-term plan for the further expansion of the emergency department with €22 million allocated to the project which will double the capacity. Full planning permission was recently granted for this expansion and the project is ready to go.

This does not deal, however, with the problem facing nurses, doctors, hospital management and, most important, the patients and their families. Yesterday morning, a total of 45 patients who had been technically admitted to the hospital, were waiting for beds, with nine patients in a queue in the accident and emergency department. Management and staff did their utmost to respond as best they could to the situation by reassigning staff and opening some new beds in other facilities in the region. However, the major problem is that since the reconfiguration of hospital services in the north east under the previous Government, the Lourdes hospital has never had the full complement of beds which a region with this size of population merits. It did not have a full complement under Fianna Fáil when the country was awash with money and I take the view that neither does it now. Older patients who are medically discharged need their home care packages fast-tracked.

The Minister for Health and the HSE need to provide the necessary resources for the development of 100 beds in a long-term residential nursing home, a proposal promoted by me and by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Fergus O'Dowd. The HSE has applied to the Department of Health for capital funding to allow this project to come to fruition. This is my aim and that of the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd. It is now the policy of the HSE region of Dublin and the north east which made an application in recent months.

The Cottage Hospital in Drogheda has been kept open and it is a facility in which the Minister has an interest. The hospital cares for those who are no longer acutely ill and are waiting until they are well enough to go home or until their longer-term care needs are addressed. It is vital to see the new extra transitional care beds which the HSE is committed to delivering and which are much needed. The HSE is working with the staff in the hospital to fulfil that goal.

See this speech in context