Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is great concern over the figure of 12 beds as that is not the reality at the hospital. The HSE has stated to me that there are 18 support acute discharge beds and two additional short-stay beds in the hospital. There is demand for more beds, and if GPs were allowed to admit patients, there would be further demand. I gave the Minister the example where, with four beds free in the hospital, somebody was forced to travel to Castlebar.

The staff are going to be redeployed many miles away and will not get any recognition or compensation for that. There is also the question of the development of facilities. The Minister has a policy paper relating to community and district hospitals. We often refer to Belmullet as a step-down facility for Mayo University Hospital, but we need to step up the services on offer, which would take the pressure off Mayo University Hospital which has been under inordinate pressure along with the regional hospital in Galway for the past 12 to 18 months. If we are to take the pressure off the two central hospitals, we will have to use Belmullet, Ballina and Swinford to their potential instead of cutting Peter to pay Paul. The HSE is spending extra money on acute beds when there are beds empty in Belmullet.

Will the Minister of State challenge HSE management on the figure it gave of 12 beds, because it gave us a figure of 20? Will the Minister be visiting the hospital? If so, when will he do so? I ask the Minister of State to walk in the shoes of the staff who are affected, who have given extraordinary service only to find out by text message on a Friday of a bank holiday weekend that their jobs are about to go. The agency staff are still in complete limbo and those on temporary contracts are going to be forced to travel 40 or 50 miles a day to work. That is completely unfair to people who give everything to their job.

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