Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I again thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I want to reassure the Deputy that the Health Service Executive has confirmed that every effort is being taken to support, stabilise and urgently address identified risks at the hospital. To provide that reassurance, a number of actions have been taken by the South/South West Hospital Group and the group's interim chief operations officer has been onsite at the hospital, as I said, directly supporting management and clinicians on a two days a week basis. A HSE review team has been established to identify priorities and related critical dependencies, as well as to provide recommendations to be considered at a local level. The hospital group, in conjunction with HSE Estates, has also commissioned a planning process to strategically examine current and future infrastructural capacity requirements. The HSE is committed to strengthening the governance, leadership and management arrangement at UHK and it is confident that implementing the findings from the review team, as well as new actions, such as initiating a health planning process, will all help to provide the necessary direction and supports required.

There have been huge challenges since the Covid-19 pandemic. I again thank the hard-working and committed staff of UHK and all staff around the country for the provision of services during the Covid-19 pandemic. I hope the findings of this review team that was established comprising all of the various stakeholders will be addressed.

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