Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Faraor, táimid ar ais arís go dtí an t-ábhar seo. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil suim ag an Aire Stáit, an Teachta Rabbitte, sa scéal seo ach táim ar ais arís ag ardú na ceiste seo, ceist a d'ardaigh mo bheirt comhghleacaí as Gaillimh, an Teachta Ó Cuív agus an Teachta Mairéad Farrell, nuair a bhí mise sa Chathaoir siar i nDeireadh Fómhair. Faraor, níl aon dul chun cinn déanta. Táimid ag leanúint ar aghaidh agus an baol ann i gcónaí go ndúnfaidh an t-ospidéal, ospidéal atá lárnach don cheantar, atá thar a bheith tábhachtach chun an brú ar an ospidéal i nGaillimh a laghdú agus lena mbaineann an méid sin buntáistí eile. Unfortunately, I am raising the issue of Clifden District Hospital again. I am hoping the Minister of State might have some good news today. I doubt it, but I hope she does, because we are still in the same situation as we were previously. As the Minister of State is aware, my two colleagues raised the issue back in October when I was in the Chair. We did that as one voice. We had meetings with staff and the union.

I will put it into context for the Minister of State. HIQA visited Clifden District Hospital in the middle of the Covid pandemic. Its conclusions on six measures were that the hospital was fully compliant on three of them, substantially compliant on two of them and partially compliant on one of them. That is a pretty good judgment from HIQA. It went on to point out that the feedback from the patients was positive. It noted some difficulties with the infrastructure. In particular, it was brought to the hospital's attention that there were not enough showers or enough showers geared towards gender, there was a lack of sinks and problems like that. Overall, the hospital got a thumbs-up from HIQA in the middle of Covid. Of the six measures, it was completely compliant on three measures, substantially complaint on two measures and partially compliant on one measure. The one that is was partially compliant was eminently in relation to-----

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