Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is huge concern over the closure of the youth clinic at Tallaght Hospital on 19 July. Up to 8,000 children in west Dublin who have had their broken bones treated in Tallaght Hospital will not be able to have their cases reviewed in the hospital. The hospital has said that the service was being delivered by a locum consultant whose contract has now ceased. Despite the best efforts of hospital management, it not proved possible to maintain the service in the short term due to recruitment challenges. This is a consultant in Tallaght Hospital servicing children's broken bones. This service will be moved to Our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin. Why was the consultant not replaced to deal with this issue in the short term? We urgently need to ensure that these children in Tallaght will not be forced to travel to Crumlin, thereby putting more pressure on scarce resources there.

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