Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This matter relates to out-of-hours services at St. Joseph's Hospital, Longford. I will give the Minister of State a little background. In December 2022, the old MIDOC service that was there went into receivership and it left no permanent contract in place for the out-of-hours service, or the red-eye service, for evening and weekend services in Longford. To date, a permanent contract has not been put in place. There were times when the service was not available and people had to travel to Mullingar hospital.We have seen the opening of a minor injury clinic at St. Francis's hospital in Ballinderry, which is on the edge of Mullingar as well, without any investment in the campus at St. Joseph's hospital.

I put on the record my thanks to the Minister, Deputy Harris, when he was Minister for Health. He allocated a multimillion euro fund to upgrade the care centre for the elderly, but the people of Longford want a permanent out-of-hours service contract put in place. We feel not enough investment is going into the centre there. We have been looking for additional palliative beds. We have a fantastic X-ray facility, which needs a significant upgrade, but that investment does not seem to be put in place. My colleague, Councillor Peggy Nolan, has probably been one of the strongest advocates for the staff and, indeed, the service there. I will also highlight this issue. We want a permanent contract put in place, to take away that fear that if an issue arises with regard to the availability of a doctor, we will be left without that service in our county town which means, yet again, we have to travel three quarters of an hour to get that service. I want a commitment from the HSE that service will be in place immediately to serve the people of County Longford.