asked the Minister for Health if he is aware that patients in Rialto Hospital are now only allowed visitors on three days weekly and if he will direct that visits will be permitted daily as was previously the practice.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Hospital Patients' Visitors
I am aware that, generally speaking, patients in Rialto Hospital are now allowed visitors on three days weekly, but the medical superintendent grants permission for visits at other times in individual cases on compassionate or other reasonable grounds.
I understand that the presence in the wards daily of large numbers of visitors was regarded as causing undue disturbance to patients who were acutely ill or who were undergoing the highly specialised forms of treatment now available in the hospital, including major thoracic surgery, and that the recent change was made on the advice of the medical superintendent, who is an officer of considerable experience, acting in the best interests of the patients. In these circumstances, I would not feel justified in intervening.