Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have two issues. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, but I would like to have had the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, in the Chamber today. He is the Minister with primary responsibility; he should have been here.

Second, I wholeheartedly disagree with the Minister for Health's comment that an additional elective facility in Limerick would have minimal impact population coverage relevant to a significant increased investment to build and operate. From what I can see, other jurisdictions that have the elective hospital cannot even decided on a site. They are openly arguing. We have options on the table, namely, St. John's Hospital and UPMC, maybe with both working together. In my view, that subject has to be looked at.

The bottom line here is that this is a Government decision. This is at variance with what the Taoiseach said publicly both in the Dáil and outside. He said there is a need for an elective hospital unit. The case is compelling. This particular response seems to completely ignore the fact that we have had a performance management unit in UHL for the last number of months. We have the highest number of patients presenting to the emergency department in the country. We had 80,000 this year. Second, our ratio of emergency department attendees-to-bed ratio is by far the highest in the country. The case is, therefore, compelling. I have looked at the process. Under the Sláintecare national elective ambulatory care strategy, the elective hospitals oversight group was challenged with basically scoping out the elective hospitals in Cork, Galway and Dublin. It needs to be directed by the Minister for Health, in line with the commitment from the Taoiseach, to now include Limerick as well.

Our system in Limerick is under enormous pressure. The recently published Deloitte report stated that we will need 300 additional beds by 2026. At the moment, we need 200. We have 96 being built; we need another 90 more or less straight away. There are options on the table that would effectively involve an enhanced elective hospital at either St. John's Hospital or UPMC on the ground very quickly.

I very much want the Minister for Health to take up this issue now and have discussions with the Taoiseach in terms of what the Taoiseach said publicly. We need to get this elective hospital for Limerick included as Government policy and get the scoping from the elective hospitals oversight group under way.

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