Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan. I am delighted to see somebody from the west here as this topic relates to hospital services in the west, in particular the Galway region. The Minister of State will be aware that Galway University Hospitals comprises University Hospital Galway, UHG, and Merlin Park Hospital, which provide a range of emergency elective services for the people of Galway and the western region. UHG is a model 4 hospital.

I am sure the Minister of State was invited to participate in the presentations from the Saolta University Health Care Group regarding ambitious plans for the future of healthcare in Galway and the west. The group commissioned an options appraisal, published in 2019, which gave a range of indicative costs for a new hospital in Merlin Park, the refurbishment of University Hospital Galway, the creation of acute services in Merlin Park and elective services in UGH or vice versa. These costs ranged from €2.9 billion and €3.4 billion, which the Minister of State will agree is a considerable amount of money.

Saolta is right to have a vision for the future of healthcare. I acknowledge and commend the group in that regard. The options appraisal acknowledged that an emergency department should be built on the existing site at UGH and that consideration would be given to a range of services and the possibility of an elective hospital in the Merlin Park unit. We were awaiting plans. There were frustrating delays with regard to planning applications for an emergency department and a lot of talk and discussion about what would or would not be included as part of the facilities in Merlin Park. Lo and behold, the Department of Health, through the Sláintecare team, made a presentation to the South/South West Hospital Group that referred to the plans for Galway, Cork and Dublin, and there was a lot of similarity and information that was relevant to all three sites. This presentation showed that the facilities will provide high value, low complexity procedures on a day and outpatient basis, together with a range of ambulatory diagnostic services. The chosen model for the Merlin Park facility, according to the presentation by the Sláintecare team, was for selective day surgery plus a minor see and treat service, which was one place above a minor procedures unit and three places below a full elective hospital. There was no mention of any inpatient beds and, in fact, there was no mention of anything except day facilities, six days a week, 50 weeks of the year.

There is absolute confusion in Galway at the moment in terms of what Saolta, the Department of Health, the Sláintecare team and, dare I say, the Government have in mind in regard to the competing demands of Merlin Park and UHG. The planning application for an emergency department has still not been lodged despite the then Minister, Deputy Harris, being told in 2018 that it would be lodged before Christmas of that year. We have talk but no concrete plans in respect of Merlin Park. We are at sixes and sevens and are falling between two stools. We have a grand vision and we have immediate needs in regard to an emergency department and extra elective beds. Thank God we delivered a 75-bed unit in new, modern facilities in UHG, which the then Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, opened. Thank God we got that delivery at UHG. Perhaps the Minister of State will be able to shed some light on what the Department of Health has in mind for healthcare in Galway.