Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I join him in complimenting our frontline staff at UHL. They are under extreme pressure. We are unfortunately a permanent fixture at the top of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation's Trolley Watch figures. Today there are 47 people on trolleys in the accident and emergency department of UHL. It is a frightening figure. The next highest figure is in Cork University Hospital where there are 26 people on trolleys. I recognise the work, including the addition of 98 more beds to the system over the last year, since the advent of Covid, to help us fight it. There is also a critical project planned there. It is a 96-bed permanent ward block. It is important this project is fast-tracked. We only have 533 inpatient acute beds in the mid-west region. It is important this project is brought online as quickly as possible. I ask the Minister to take a personal interest in this to drive it on because we just do not have enough bed capacity to deal with the admissions to the hospital.

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