Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)

The people of the mid-west region deserve access to responsive and safe urgent and emergency care. The Government is delivering improvements through a combination of increased capacity and reform. These reforms are seeking to increase acute capacity and, where appropriate, divert people away from the emergency department to more suitable services. Overall, 572 new inpatient beds will be delivered in the mid-west region from 2020 to 2031. Site works have been commenced on the new Limerick surgical hub for elective procedures. Opening hours have been extended at the medical assessment units in Ennis and Nenagh hospitals from 8 a.m. until midnight, expanding the service availability across the region. Local injury units are accepting patients 12 hours a day, seven days a week, at St. John's, Ennis and Nenagh hospitals. As part of HIQA’s review, the ESRI has been commissioned to conduct national and regional demand and capacity reviews. There has been a high level of public interest in the process with 1,121 submissions being received during the six-week public consultation. As part of the stakeholder engagement workstream, the final report of the HIQA review will inform future decision-making around the design and delivery of urgent and emergency healthcare services in the mid-west as requested by the Minister for Health.

I met the Minister one day when she was on her way to Cork to inspect University Hospital Cork. She is passionate about getting more consultants working over the weekends, particularly at bank holiday weekends. In some hospitals where there is an excellent rota in place, there is a greatly reduced number of people on trolleys.