Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of ward 2D in Cork University Hospital, CUH, which is the HSE's largest hospital. Ward 2D is a haematology and burns unit. It has beds, seven of which are for leukaemia patients. That is ten beds to serve the entire region of Cork, Kerry and Waterford, so capacity is the first problem. These are also some of the sickest patients in CUH. Unfortunately, ward 2D has not changed in well over 40 years. The situation is so bad that when new patients are admitted, the care team has to assess the existing patients to see which are least at risk of infection so they can be moved to other areas in the hospital. The consultants and nurses are incredible but they are working in 1970s conditions. This has to change. There is a proposal for a 60-bed cancer building, the Glandore suite, in CUH. My first ask is that this would be included in the 2024 capital programme and that construction would commence as soon as possible.

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