Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

A public health reform expert advisory group has been set up by the Minister. It has 30 members and is chaired by Professor Hugh Brady, a former president of UCD. Will there be any formal review by the Government and has any model been decided on?

During Covid - we are still in Covid but during the really bad times - we had to make certain allowances in relation to hospitals. I want to raise the issue of University Hospital Limerick, UHL. Colleagues across politics have raised this matter. UHL is my local hospital. There are record numbers of people on trolleys in the hospital. Last week, it was 97, on Wednesday it was 111 and the figure for the whole month of January was 1,300. The overcrowding is 132% higher than it was last year. There is a systemic issue here. I have been fighting on this issue for a decade. The hospital is not big enough. There will have to be a change in pathways for the use of Nenagh, Ennis and St. John's hospitals. We have to do something because the management and staff at UHL cannot do any more. The hospital is too small for the population in the area.

When the Government is selecting an elective hospital for the future, the first base should be in the mid-west. Whether on the grounds of one of the current hospitals or with one of these hospitals, it should be in the mid-west because that is where the biggest crisis is. That is a long-term solution. In the short term, we need a change in pathways and also €41 million more in funding to bring UHL up to the required service of a model 4 hospital.

See this speech in context