Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I fully agree with the Deputy's assessment. As he said, Mayo University Hospital and Sligo University Hospital are fantastic hospitals but they are under pressure and need additional investment in beds, in their workforces and in diagnostics. As he also correctly said, the hospitals are only as good as the networks and the ecosystems within which they work. That is where Ballina really comes into its own. That is why we need the extra beds and the extra capacity. The biggest challenge in emergency departments now, when we look for example at the intense pressure Galway, Mayo and Sligo hospitals are under, is delayed discharge and transfer of care. Hundreds of patients are in hospital beds and have been discharged but at the moment there is nowhere to send them to. This is partly because more than 60% of nursing homes cannot currently take people in because they are within 28 days of a Covid outbreak. However, as the Deputy correctly said, much more can be done with facilities such as those in Ballina.

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