Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. I take the opportunity to compliment the staff in Cavan General Hospital, many of whom I know personally. All the staff, regardless of the discipline they work in, work extremely hard under a lot of pressure and stress and they are diligent and committed to their patients.

As I said earlier, fortunately, there was major development and investment at Cavan General Hospital in the period up to 2011 but this extra capacity creates extra demands on the emergency department. An area I did not mention is the increased provision of oncology services, with linkages to the Mater Hospital. There have also been developments in the area of nephrology, with the development of a substantial dialysis unit.

It is extremely important that a message is given to the people through the Members of this House that there will be no diminution in the status of the emergency department at Cavan General Hospital. What we need, and what I and fellow public representatives have been arguing for, is an investment in new facilities at Cavan General Hospital because of the increasing presentation of patients. The hospital is under extreme capacity pressure. I hope the Minister of State will bring that message back to the Department and the HSE.

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