Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not have an answer in respect of Letterkenny University Hospital. However, I can say that the following hospitals are included in respect of the 170 additional beds that have been opened this winter. Twenty-two beds have been opened in St. Vincent's University Hospital; 25 have been opened in Drogheda; 17 have been opened in Limerick; 28 have been opened in Galway; 20 have been opened in Beaumont Hospital; 23 have been opened in St. James's Hospital; 24 have been opened in the Mater Hospital; and 11 have been opened in Naas General Hospital. Additional beds will be provided this year in St. Luke's Hospital, Kilkenny; University Hospital Waterford and Cork University Hospital. A new emergency department will also open in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, with a modular build to open in south Tipperary, as I indicated earlier. We must insist on these additional capacity developments being linked with changes to hospital work practices and systems. Despite promises that capacity makes a difference, it very often does not make a blind bit of difference, unless hospitals change the way they work.

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