Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising the important matter of the emergency department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, and welcome the opportunity to update the House on it. The Government and the Minister for Health are committed to the ongoing development of hospitals, such as that in Drogheda. The Government has allocated significant resources to meet the needs of patients using the hospital. Staffing at the hospital has grown by 351 since January 2020, from 2,299 staff then to 2,650 staff in March 2024, representing an increase in staffing of 15%. In 2020, the hospital had a budget of €204 million. In April 2024, the budget had increased to €260 million, meaning its budget had grown by €56 million, or 27%, in just four years.

Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital is the main acute hospital, as the Senator noted, in the north east and has 24-7 emergency care and related services. It is a nationally important facility and, according to the HSE, it hosts the fifth busiest emergency department in the country. The emergency floor of the hospital includes an emergency department, a clinical decision unit, accredited acute medical and acute surgical assessment units and a paediatric emergency department. Wider hospital services include critical care, orthopaedic trauma, surgery, a wide range of medical specialties, an acute stroke unit, cardiology, gynaecology and obstetrics, and paediatrics. The hospital's emergency department was last updated with an extensive phase 2 capital development completed in 2020. This involved an extension to both the adult and paediatric emergency departments. A new state-of-the-art theatre suite, comprising five new operating theatres, was also completed in 2020. Furthermore, over the past four years, three more ward floors have been reconfigured as 84 single-room accommodation units, improving the patient pathway and infection control environment.

Looking to the future needs of the hospital, with the anticipated future growth in the local population and an increasing population over 75 years of age, it is necessary to further develop the hospital's capacity and capability. In this regard, a number of projects are planned and under way to improve acute hospital capacity. Under the Government’s hospital bed expansion plan, a total of 141 new and replacement beds will be delivered at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital by 2031. Of these, 96 beds are scheduled to be delivered between 2025 and 2028. Additional inpatient accommodation is being constructed off site as a modular unit and is expected to be on site and completed in early January of next year.This unit will deliver 15 additional beds to the hospital. A feasibility study has also been conducted to convert the Boyne ground floor west of the hospital to an inpatient ward. This feasibility study looked to identify potential for additional beds. These projects speak to the high level of investment this Government continues to put into Drogheda for the benefit of the staff and patients.