Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. I pay tribute to the staff in UHL, led by chief executive, Ms Colette Cowan, and clinical director, Dr. Gerry Burke, for the excellent work they do. It is a hospital, and a hospital group, that does not have adequate capacity relative to the size of the population, which will not come as news to anybody. I do not want to use up all the time but, as we have been discussing, there are now exciting and ambitious plans to try and grow that capacity. There will be a 60-bed ward block. I am looking at Deputy Kelly because he regularly raises this issue with me. There will be an additional 48 beds in UHL and 24 in Croom Hospital. I saw the latest figures for the Bon Secours Hospital in Limerick and it is true that there was only 2% inpatient occupancy in the week 11 May to 15 May. That increased to 30% in the week 18 May to 22 May. In light of Deputy Leddin raising the matter, I will specifically seek an update from the HSE on the utilisation of that capacity.

I do not want UHL to be allowed to go back to the significant overcrowding issue it had. That was not a fault of its own but rather of decades of failure to deliver additional bed capacity. I argue that we have put the plans for that capacity in place but we need it to come on stream as quickly as possible.

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