Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Can the Minister even give a year as to when he expects this to be open? He mentioned the problem with day surgery. The problem in the last three or four years has been that whenever there is a surge, whether due to Covid or otherwise, elective day surgeries are the first to be cancelled. On any given day, University Hospital Kerry cannot guarantee that an elective surgery will actually take place because it does not have the beds or it is using the day wards as surge capacity for the emergency department. They are the low hanging fruit; they are the ones that are always getting cancelled.

What plan does the Minister have to deal with this? He mentioned rapid modular builds such as the ones that were built in Clonmel and Limerick. One of those needs to be put in place, at the very least. We have a problem with ratcheting up hospital capacity. One of the solutions was community recovery beds. It was said two or three years ago that an extra 70 would solve the problem with regard to step-down beds. A new building is being constructed in Killarney but, unfortunately, there is not one extra bed there.

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