Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach Gníomhach. I thank the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, for being with us today to debate the HSE capital plan. Is the figure of more than €1 billion for infrastructure across the country incredible? The Minister is looking at it not only in the hospital environment but in the primary care network. I am delighted to see the investment across Roscommon and Galway, particularly in Ballinasloe for Portiuncula University Hospital to which €20 million has been allocated. I visited the hospital in the past week and one can see the 50-bed ward block, which is up to the third level. Such progress has been made in the past year to two years. The €15 million allocated for 2023 is for the 50-bed ward block with en suite rooms. The excitement and joy about 13 beds and 13 rooms in a hospital is fantastic. All I can say is that the staff cannot wait. There is great excitement and anticipation and there will be a great deal of demand around how it will be used. It means patients who are in multi-bed ward blocks will no longer be accommodated in that way. We will be able to deliver care, and show dignity and respect, to patients and their families at all stages of life, particularly when it is very difficult at the end stages of life.

In addition, €4 million has been allocated to the outpatients department. The outpatients department will move to a building on the grounds of the hospital. This is a great initiative. The hospital wanted to get more single rooms, particularly when dealing with the pandemic. There will, therefore, be eight single rooms en suite with two two-bed units. That is 12 beds. That is literally doubling the capacity.

HSE estates will be making some decisions shortly. As far as I know, these beds are ready. Portiuncula University Hospital is recruiting staff at the moment and many are considering this hospital because it is just off the motorway. We have increased the number to more than 1,000 people, with over 200 people recruited in the past two years. However, the challenge is in just equipping those rooms. My request is in regard to approval for equipping those rooms so they can come on stream this winter.

I thank the Minister, in particular in respect of the expansion of the emergency department, ED, and that consideration for that has been added as a new project in the HSE capital plan. We need the rooms I have spoken about to come on stream this winter because that new project will probably take slightly longer. I hope that will be modular build and that we will get design approval and to the tender stage in order to be ready for next year. It would be incredible if HSE estates was able to do some of that preparation work so that this time next year, we might be in a position to allocate funding to a project that is ready to move forward very quickly.

In paediatrics, in the emergency department, ED, Covid-19-streaming is still happening. The reason is that we do not have single rooms to manage infection-control. There is nowhere to bring a person who is infectious. The paediatrics section and team stepped up during the Covid-19 period and moved their ED for children and young people under 18 years of age upstairs to their own section. They then lost out in terms of what they needed, particularly perhaps around oncology. Currently, the hospital is working so hard and the equipping of those rooms will make it easier for it to open up that space again for paediatrics. More than a quarter of the presentations to the ED in Portiuncula University Hospital are under-18 years of age. We sometimes see challenging behaviours and difficult situations and staff manage them, but in paediatrics, which I visited in the past week, we are looking at wards where healthcare staff cannot get around the bed. They have to move the child to another space to try to deliver healthcare in a crisis situation.

I ask the Minister about approval for the equipping of these rooms by HSE estates, and approval to move to design stage, or to that point to enable the ED expansion so that we can expect this in 2024. This is a period of great excitement and I know there will be real joy when we see those 50-beds coming on stream. I hope the opening of the 12-beds might happen in September, please God. This would be wonderful. If I had a wish list, it would be on it.

I very much acknowledge the funding for the St. Brigid’s hospital unit at Oak Grove, under community healthcare organisation, CHO, 2. The increase in terms of getting the 20 beds in the rehabilitation unit in Roscommon University Hospital is of great significance. There is also the Sacred Heart hospital and care home residential unit.

On e-health, and I know this is a debate on the HSE capital plan and its infrastructure, I would like to ask about funding for it and the information technology, IT, infrastructure. Has the Minister any information on that and could he comment on it?

Is there any way the Minister might be able to streamline HSE estates using e-health and IT to do that?