Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach. I ask that the Government and the Taoiseach's own office move the Office of Government Procurement review. We have had a specification and a build tender capable on this project since January of this year and we are now expected to wait another four months while we approve an approval for a total spend of €6 million, while every week we are deferring diagnostic angiograms and risking patients up and down the roads. It is unacceptable and I ask the Taoiseach to look at it. Will the Taoiseach also see about the restoration of the diagnostic service? Although the Taoiseach did say that there are ongoing arrangements with Whitfield Hospital, there is no service level agreement, SLA, in place at this time as far as I am aware. Something needs to be done about the cardiac care isolation rooms in Waterford hospital because the service cannot be provided. There are even constraints on providing it between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and something must be done about that.

I ask the Taoiseach to consider a further matter. I have asked the Oireachtas Library and Research Service to do an independent review of costings and support budgets across the model 4 hospitals. I would like the Government to conduct a full independent review of the funding of the model 4 hospitals, looking at University Hospital Waterford's primacy in the region, as well as its funding relative to that of other model 4 hospitals. When the Taoiseach sees that he will understand that something serious and fast needs to be done about that hospital.

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