Seanad debates
Thursday, 22 October 2020
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Hospital Funding
10:30 am
Pat Casey (Fianna Fail)
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I call Senator Aisling Dolan who has four minutes.
Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Anne Rabbitte. I look forward to working with her in her new portfolio. It is great to see a woman from the west because she will be well aware of the Commencement matter I will raise today. It relates to Portiuncula University Hospital, in Ballinasloe, and investment under the HSE capital plan for 2021 and also the HSE winter plan for 2020. As the Minister of State would know very well, Portiuncula is a level 3, 24-7 hospital. It operates 365 days a year. It never stops. It handles casualty, maternity and surgical services and is part of the Saolta network. It is one of the seven hospitals that are part of the network in the west and we so need our hospitals in the west to be hospitals fit for the 21st century.
What surprised me when I was involved in fighting for the 50-bed unit last year was that the hospital handles a catchment area of more than 500,000 people. It is amazing. It covers five counties including east Galway, Roscommon, parts of Westmeath, Offaly, north Tipperary and, as the Minister of State would know, Portumna. It even covers Athlone, with a population of more than 21,000 people. If one lives in Athlone one was more than likely born in Portiuncula hospital.
For people in Ballinasloe, the hospital is an integral part of our identity and a vital service. Close to 800 people work in the hospital. We have excellent healthcare teams. We recently won funding awards with Sláintecare. However, the hospital infrastructure dates back to the 1940s. There is a dire lack of shower and toilet facilities and for an area of 400,000 people, Portiuncula hospital has only 13 single rooms. I am not talking about ICU beds; I am talking about single rooms to keep people safe from infection. It is made up of six- and eight-bed wards. In the face of this crisis, a special ward was designated for Covid-19 patients within the hospital. The general manager and the teams in the hospital have taken the initiative. They have moved the outpatient department to a modular unit in the car park. They have funding for that modular unit but funds are now required for the next step to develop the outpatients unit into 13 en suite single rooms.Can the Minister confirm that sufficient funds are listed in the HSE 2021 capital plan for the redesign and repurposing of the outpatients’ area in Portiuncula hospital as a matter of urgency? We need those 13 rooms now and even if the work is started in January it will be February before it will be set up. When I was a county councillor in 2019, the Minister of State, Deputy Anne Rabbitte, and I were at a meeting here with the then Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, and commitments were given on the 50-bed unit. A 50-single-bed unit was committed to and the enabling works have started. The investment for that is crucial for the hospital to ensure adequate facilities. These are just single rooms to avoid basic overcrowding, infection and to ensure that there is dignity for end-of-life for patients. As I mentioned we need a hospital that is fit for the 21st century.
Can the Minister confirm if follow-on funding is available for stage two construction of this 50-bed single unit and if the tender process is to commence in January, with HSE estates? We looked for and were given a date last year with a construction start date of July 2021.
Finally, the CT scanner is not currently fully operational in the hospital. The Minister of State may be aware of this. It is due for equipment replacement in 2022. Can the Minister of State consider within the Department of Health if a replacement CT scanner could be an urgent request for the 2021 equipment budget to allow for early diagnosis and to assist teams handling of waiting lists?
I thank the Minister of State for her time. I know that of all Ministers, and being a woman from the west, she is aware of the crucial importance of that hospital and of the lack of investment over the past number of decades. I look forward to hearing more from the Minister of State now about the great budget we have achieved with an extra €4 billion, and the commitment to bed capacity.
Pat Casey (Fianna Fail)
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I now call on the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. It is my first opportunity in a public session to congratulate her on her appointment as a Minister of State and, equally, to thank her for her work in the recent budget in securing €100 million for disability.
Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Senator Dolan for placing this matter today. Before I go to the script it gives me great pleasure to discuss Portiuncula Hospital given that my youngest child was born there. It is 24 miles down the road from me so I know it intimately. Many of my constituents work in Portiuncula Hospital and it is embedded in the fabric not just of Ballinasloe but in the wider spread of the area. It provides a great service. I will read the script and then I will focus on the two main questions the Senator has asked.
Portiuncula hospital, Ballinasloe is one our acute general and maternity hospitals that delivers a patient-centred, quality-driven focused service and provides a wide range of diagnostic and support services. The hospital catchment area, as the Senator has referred, includes east Galway, Roscommon, the midlands and the mid-western areas.
The construction of the 50-bed ward block is an important project for this hospital. A contractor was appointed for the enabling works commenced on the 11 August 2020 and due for completion by 25 May 2021. It intended to advertise for contractors for construction of the 50-bed ward block in the second quarter of 2020. That should be about to progress as we speak now. This is with a view to commencing works on-site in mid-2021, subject to the availability of funding. This project is on the capital plan and the Senator was given commitments by the previous Minister. I have been speaking to the current Minister on this project and it is a focus to keep this project live and to ensure there is funding following for it.
As the Senator knows this winter is expected to be particularly challenging due to the presence of Covid-19 and the Government's determination to meet the challenge is demonstrated by its decision to invest the additional €600 million in the health services this winter: €200 million in 2020 ands €400 million in 2021, to support the roll-out of the winter-specific measures.
For Portiuncula Hospital, it is proposed to provide the additional space addressed by the Senator with a prefab-modular building for segregation which will provide an immediate solution for emergency department streaming for winter 2020 at the hospital. The modular building proposed will facilitate 14 temporary Covid-19 emergency department and minor injuries treatment and assessment rooms with associated support facilities. The unit will also have a residual value for the displacement of outpatient accommodation after the Covid-19 emergency. It states here that it is expected that the building will be ready for occupation by March 2021 but I have a slight concern that it will be ready for occupation by that date because that is at the end of our winter period.The staff and management of Portiuncula University Hospital would like to have a commitment that they could actually start. We all know that the accident and emergency department in the hospital is head-to-toe when it gets really busy. Due to Covid and social distancing it does not have the facility, hence the request that it needs to be prioritised. Other hospitals around the country are in the same position. That is the nature of the question.
I have spoken to the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, about the matter and I am trying to get it prioritised. Deputy Denis Naughten has also raised this issue. It is an issue of priority for constituents in the area. The staff and patients are at risk. The demographics of the area usually show that there is an older population. There is a fear on the part of GPs in terms of referring people to the hospital because it does not have adequate space for their patients.
Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State. It is great to hear that commitment. The commitment to Portiuncula University Hospital and the Saolta group mean that our healthcare teams in the west will be able to cope when faced with the worst public health crisis ever. It means that patients in our hospital will receive the care that they deserve.
I ask the Minister of State to accelerate the project if at all possible. We need it now. As far as I know, the modular unit is up and running. Funding was received for that and the hospital authorities moved things out of the outpatient unit. If we could get a move on that quickly the beds would be available. There could be single rooms to handle isolation. The hospital is dealing with infectious patients, be they potential Covid cases or the normal flu, and there is no place to isolate them.
I appreciate the commitment of the Minister of State on this. As she will be aware, all public representatives very much support the hospital and hope that, at a national level, the HSE will give that commitment as soon as possible to the Saolta healthcare group. I appreciate the time of the Minister of State.
Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Senator Dolan. I did not answer the question on the CT scanner. The HSE advised that the replacement of the CT scanner in Portiuncula is scheduled for 2021 or 2022, through the HSE equipment replacement programme. Priority for replacement is based on risk categorisation covering age dependability and service history, with capacity for replacement depending on availability of funding.
If there is an issue in anything I have said that could support the management of the hospital in terms of risk categorisation, perhaps it can be reviewed. The Senator should be assured from the Department and the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, that we want to work with all local public and elected representatives to ensure that the 14-bed modular unit and isolation rooms are made available, not just for isolation but the protection of everybody coming into the hospital. I look forward to working with the Senator on that.