James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, on her appointment. She and I go back a number of years and I know she is an exceptionally hard worker for the constituency of Waterford. I am deeply grateful that she has been appointed as a Minister of State.

As my colleague, Deputy O'Sullivan, has stated, a review of the patient services in the South/South West Hospital Group has been undertaken. I agree that such personnel should be located in Cork University Hospital, CUH, now that the process is under review. I welcome that a major trauma centre is to be placed in CUH to provide high to moderate intensive inpatient rehabilitation for patients who can tolerate an intensive rehabilitation programme or who require a structured environment.

It would be wise to locate one of these designated trauma units attached to such a major trauma centre in Mallow General Hospital. Mallow is the crossroads of Munster. It has great connections to CUH, and the development of the new M20 motorway will allow greater connectivity to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dublin. The location of Mallow General Hospital would fit excellently into the managed clinical rehabilitation networks hub and spoke model proposed under the review and should be taken into consideration.

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