Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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809. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the report by the national critical care programme on critical care facilities at Letterkenny University Hospital, LUH, where it clearly states that existing facilities for critical care at the hospital are suboptimal, and highlights the lack of critical care beds and isolation rooms as particular problems; and if he will now urgently release the finances, as requested, to expand the critical care unit at LUH with ten additional beds, comprised of six intensive care unit and four high-dependency units. [36944/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The overall direction for enhancing and providing for critical care capacity is set out in the Strategic Plan for Critical Care which was noted by Government in 2020. €78.2m has been provided under Phase 1 of the Strategic Plan to address the capacity requirements in critical care.

Under Phase 1, it is aimed to bring critical care capacity to 352 beds, an increase of 94 beds over the baseline position in 2020 of 258 beds. Very significant progress has been made and 80 of these additional beds are open. We now have 338 critical care beds, an increase of 31%.

Phase 2 will deliver an additional 106 critical care beds at five priority projects to bring capacity to 458, surpassing the 2018 Health Service Capacity Review’s recommendation of 430 beds by 2031.

The Strategic Plan aligns with the Hub and Spoke model of care of the National Clinical Programme for Critical Care. The investment provided under the Strategic Plan is designed to increase capacity in line with this model of care.

New developments at Letterkenny University Hospital will be considered by the HSE in line with the Strategic Plan for Critical Care and under the capital projects approval process.