Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That day is etched in my mind because what I saw when Deputy Kelly showed me around was a beautiful facility that was not being fully utilised. The Deputy knows the history better than I, but Cashel Health Campus in County Tipperary, which includes Our Lady’s Hospital, provides mainly primary care services. There is a small residential facility on the site, together with other services including day and outreach services. The residential unit, which includes elderly, mental health and intellectual disability beds, is currently fully occupied.

The development of the campus as a centre for non-acute health care services arose from a decision by the former South Eastern Health Board to centralise acute hospital services for the south Tipperary area on one site in Clonmel. This took place in 2007.

This development of the Cashel campus occurred over two phases. Phase one of the construction work was completed by the HSE in 2009 at a cost of approximately €9 million, which it assures me was within budget. It focused on new residential facilities, including elderly care, mental health and intellectual disability beds, all of which are occupied.

Phase two concluded in 2011 and, according to the HSE, also came within budget. It tells me it had a budget of approximately €14.5 million. Phase two was focused on facilitating day and outreach services in the former Our Lady’s County Surgical Hospital. The Cashel primary care team is based at the campus and a range of services are provided on and from the site, including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, public health nursing, social work and disability services as well as home help co-ordination and community mental health nursing. Upgraded space for the minor injuries unit was also provided for in phase two. Other services include the south Tipperary community intervention team, of which the Deputy will be aware, which is a nurse-led service supporting both early discharge and hospital admission avoidance. There is also an ambulance station located on the campus.

That is the history, but I agree with the Deputy - I am going off script here - that there needs to be a plan to do much more at the site. This is why I instructed the HSE to come up with one. While South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel is under significant pressure on an almost ongoing basis, we have this fine facility in Cashel.

On spare capacity within the building, and acknowledging what is going on within it, CHO5 in conjunction with the acute hospital south west group has now developed a vision for the future of service provision in an integrated way which would be based in Our Lady's Cashel campus and, in particular, the old building. This proposal would see the use of areas for the purposes of day hospital assessment services, extended diagnostics and outreach rehabilitation services, which would work in conjunction with both community services and hospitals, provide alternative pathways, particularly for older people, and respond to the current emergency department pressures. This is where we need to get to. The proposal is still being discussed through the ongoing winter initiative weekly meetings that I chair. I believe that these developments would support the acute hospital in south Tipperary in addition to developments that should take place in Clonmel.

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