Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have also been in contact with the new general manager and I wish her well in her endeavours over the next few years. However, while I hear what the Minister is saying in regard to capital stages and the design team, the Minister still has not given a date as to when he expects the new permanent unit to be completed. He is right in referencing palliative care but, from 1 March, I understand that, quite rightly, patients have to leave the palliative care section and move somewhere else. Unbelievably, there was a proposal to move them to a private hospital on the other side of town, which would have involved a €50,000 investment by the private hospital and a €2 million investment by the HSE. At least someone saw sense and decided that moving patients to the other side of town and that type of spending was not a good idea, to put it mildly, while only a fraction of the cost was paid, which is a familiar theme across healthcare, where the public has been subsidising the private. It is now in the day surgery space and, as the Minister mentioned, 20 operations have been cancelled.

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