Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It was hard to comprehend this morning when we were told that a ward was closing in the community hospital in Cashel. Our county is suffering blow after blow on the health front. The Minister was in our constituency on the last Friday in October. He saw a facility a couple of hundred yards up the road in Cashel hospital, where there are two floors completely refurbished with over €20 million spent on them. They are lying idle. We have list after list of people looking for step-down beds, yet here we are closing more beds in our county. We have a county with no psychiatric beds in it. We are getting hit with service after service being taken from our health service. To close another ward in a hospital with a completely refurbished hospital lying idle just up the road is impossible to comprehend.

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