Seanad debates

Thursday, 25 November 2021

Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters

Hospital Services

10:30 am

Photo of Seán KyneSeán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response on behalf of the Department. He stated: "While additional beds are an important part of the solution to emergency department overcrowding and waiting lists at GUH, it is also important to acknowledge that our response must not be solely based on the provision of extra beds". They should be part of the solution, but they are not in Galway, given that none will be provided despite the fact that it is top of the list in terms of the number of people on trolleys over the past eight weeks. Clearly, the Minister of State's speech should have read, "They are not part of the solution for GUH and we have to look at private care". That is the only solution based on what I heard yesterday from HSE officials at the Joint Committee on Health and today from the Minister of State. We must look to private hospitals in Galway. Thankfully, they are there because they were built and financed, but it is not good enough that there is no physical space to put anything due to bad planning by the HSE and the Saolta University Health Care Group, which have a diversity of opinions about the UHG campus and Merlin Park. Some want to move everything to Merlin Park, some want to move parts to Merlin Park. We are caught in a situation where there are on both sides of the city medium-term, long-term and grandiose plans of €3 billion to €4 billion but there are no medium-term plans to provide extra beds for an area that the national planning framework has identified will see a population increase over the coming years.

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