Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Today I wish to raise the urgent need for an elective surgery hub at Midlands General Hospital in Tullamore. This is an issue I have been raising locally since March and I also sought a meeting with the Minister for Health at the time. I received a letter from a senior member of the medical team at the hospital that highlighted the issue around this case.

At the time, the hospital was inundated with trauma patients, leading to a situation where the facility had zero capacity to offer elective surgery for knee or hip replacement procedures. It had no access to an elective ward because it had to accommodate and facilitate emergencies that were pouring in through the emergency department. This is entirely unacceptable as the volume of patients being seen at Midland Regional Hospital has increased 40% year on year. By any objective analysis, this is a huge volume for a model 3 hospital.

The core of the problem resides in the fact that there has been no meaningful roll-out or increase in elective surgery capacity in Tullamore or the midlands for the last decade. While the staff at Midland Regional Hospital are working heroically to meet the level of demand, and I commend them on all they are doing, unfortunately, it is clear that they have hit a wall and unless there is improved capacity is put into the system, things will only get worse for local patients who will continue to be sent to other counties to access basic services through the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

I am also aware that Midland Regional Hospital has seen a 29% increase in attendances by people over 75 years compared with the same period last year. As a result, the emergency department has been under significant and ongoing pressure. Scheduled care activity has also been impacted as a result of this increased demand.

This is a major problem with a very clear and simple solution, that is, to provide a commitment to the people of Tullamore and the Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore to provide a dedicated elective surgery hub to the benefit of all in the midlands region. Without this solution, the knock-on impact to service provision and delayed care will continue to get only worse. The Government has just announced one of the largest ever budgets for the health service. What fraction of that allocation will be directed to Tullamore hospital? Will consideration be given to an elective surgery hub?

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