Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The emergency department in Galway is the second busiest, if not the busiest, in the country, with 65,000 attendances last year. There is a not a week that goes by when I do not receive representations in the form of an email or a call from somebody sitting in the emergency department, or whose partner or child is sitting in it. The conditions in which they have to wait are appalling. The emergency department was built in the 1950s and in the interim period was redesigned in the mid-2000s to get over a particular hump. Clearly it is in need of replacement. Some of the statistics and facts we have seen and the admissions the HSE has made about it are stark. For example, it does not allow effective patient streaming; it does not comply with infection control standards; it does not allow the emergency medical programme or unscheduled care and patient experience targets to be met. It is simply not up to scratch and is failing the people of Galway and counties Roscommon, Mayo and Clare, all of whom feed into this acute hospital.

I have raised this issue with the Minister before and we had very positive and constructive engagement, for which I thank him, as well as for being in the Chamber to debate it. We have the hospital on record as stating its emergency department needs to be replaced. Patients, staff and doctors have told me from their personal experience that we need a new emergency department. Everyone, including the Minister, agrees. He has been very forthright in saying in the House that we need a new emergency department in University Hospital Galway. Everyone agrees that the emergency department is failing its patients and staff, but what are we going to do about it?

There are two options available - a €30 million or a €60 million new build, in which the maternity unit would also be replaced. I understand the HSE has opted for the latter as probably the more preferable option. Given this, the next step is providing the money to design a new emergency department. The hospital should be given the go-ahead to engage architects, engineers and surveyors who should get to know the site, design something and obtain planning permission for it. When we have this done - it will take at least one year to go to tender - we will be able to talk about funding. That work is crucial in accessing funding and having a capital plan. There is no point in allotting money for a building that has not been designed or making capital available for a scheme that is nowhere near starting. Let us give the relatively small amount of money required - less than €1 million, plus VAT - to undertake this initial work. That amount could be found in the budget and would go a long way towards advancing the project which the people of Galway and those living in the hospital's wider catchment area deserve. The unfair, undignified and improper setting in which patients are being treated cannot be allowed to continue in place. Simply saying it is wrong and needs to change is not enough.

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