Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McNamara for his questions, for his work on the Covid-19 committee, and for his engagement with my Department and the HSE. I acknowledge that the mid-west has been failed for decades in terms of bed numbers. I am not here to apportion blame either but we all know the story. Changes were made, beds were promised but beds never came. I can go through the list of the beds coming now. I will not do that but a 60-bed modular unit is being built now and there are 48 other beds - 24 now and 24 due to come on stream this summer. That is a big help.

The Deputy is entirely correct. Capacity in and of itself will not be enough because the hospital was already extremely busy. These are legacy beds that it should have had years ago. We know that in addition to the hospital being already busy, the capacity constraints of Covid-19 will place further pressures on it. I agree with the Deputy that there will need to be a change in patient flow. I am just being honest. I am not proposing reopening emergency departments and the like. I am proposing that we make better use of our model 2 hospitals. I have spoken to the chief executive officer of the HSE about this. I have also started to engage with the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, and the SIPTU health division will be meeting with the INMO about different pathways of care to keep people out of the level 4 hospitals in the first instance, where it is appropriate to do so, and I will be happy to engage with the Deputy more substantively on this.

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