Susan O'Keeffe (Labour)

I thank the Minister for coming before the House. This matter relates to St. John's Hospital, Sligo, which has a fine tradition of providing care, particularly for those who are highly dependent. I was a patient at the hospital which is an old facility. When officials from the Health Information and Quality Authority visited it recently, the Cairde Ward had to be closed. It had 35 to 36 beds for women, many of them high dependence patients. Some of the women were moved out of the hospital and some were moved to other beds on an emergency, ad hoc basis on the understanding that the ward would be refurbished and reopened by Christmas with 19 beds, although my figures might be slightly awry in that regard. My concern now is that the ward remains padlocked. A tender does not appear to have been offered to anybody to do this refurbishment work and therefore it appears that not only will there be the loss of 19 beds in the refurbishment but potentially the loss of the 35 beds. The families and the staff are concerned. I understand also that some of the nurses who were on contracts have not had their contracts renewed in recent weeks and therefore if the ward was to be refurbished and reopened, there now appears to be a shortage of staff. There is considerable confusion and hence my request for some clarity from the Minister today.