asked the Minister for Health if he is now in a position to state whether any additional beds will be installed in the Dublin voluntary hospitals in the immediate future and if he can indicate a date when new hospital building will start in Dublin, as it is now over two years since he stated that a short-term building programme was about to commence, and such programme has not yet started in Dublin.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin Voluntary Hospitals.
As regards the first part of the question, a new infants unit of 31 cots has recently been completed and will be opened within the next month at the National Maternity Hospital and work has started on further extensions to provide eight additional cots. A new infants unit of 30 beds is at present being erected at the Rotunda Hospital. This unit will be in operation by the autumn. An infants unit of 16 cots is also being provided at the Coombe Hospital and should be available before the autumn. The provision of a new storey over the admission block at the Temple Street Children's Hospital will increase the bed accommodation by 24 cots by the summer.
On the completion of the new nurses' home at St. Michael's Hospital, Dún Laoghaire, accommodation will become available in the hospital for a further 30 patients. The building of a nurses' home and administration unit at the Meath Hospital, for which a contract is about to be placed, will make available accommodation for 19 additional patients.
The Deputy's statement that the short-term hospital building programme has not yet started in Dublin is not correct. In fact, a substantial part of that programme is already under way. A new sanatorium of over 500 beds has been provided at St. Mary's Chest Hospital, Phænix Park. Work has started on the new 304-bed children's hospital at Crumlin, and tenders have been obtained for the erection of a 250-bed children's sanatorium at Bally-owen, County Dublin. Site development works are in progress at the regional sanatorium at Blanchardstown. Work is well advanced on the building of a new outpatients department at St. Anne's Skin and Cancer Hospital.
The planning of the new St. Vincent's Hospital and of the new Coombe Hospital is proceeding. Detailed proposals for the new St. Laurence's Hospital at Cabra are also being examined in my Department.
The contract of the new Dublin fever hospital at Blackditch has been advertised and it is expected that the work will commence during the summer. The planning of a 128-bed extension at St. Joseph's Mental Defectives Institution at Clonsilla is well advanced and it is anticipated that work on the project will have commenced before the end of the year. A 90-bed extension at Mulhuddart Epileptic Colony is also being planned. Proposals relating to the provision of a new admission unit at Grangegorman Mental Hospital are at present before my Department.
It is hoped to see work started within a few months on the first stages of the work of improving St. Kevin's Hospital. Minor works of improvement are proceeding or are being planned at a number of other Dublin hospitals.
Each time I have asked a question in connection with the Dublin general hospitals I have specifically qualified it by requesting not to be told of the tuberculosis accommodation that has been provided. I have asked when the short-term building programme will be commenced—that means the building of new hospitals. Principally I want to know when the building of the St. Laurence Hospital is going to be commenced. The Minister must be aware —any general practitioner will tell him —that it is impossible to get a bed in city hospitals—even in nursing homes in the city. I am sick and tired of getting this type of reply read out to me.
All I can say is that the Deputy asked what additional beds would be installed in the Dublin voluntary hospitals in the immediate future. He further included in his question a statement, which is incorrect, to the effect that this short-term hospital building programme has not yet started. I have enumerated for the Deputy a list of the works that have actually been completed in the last year, that are in process of construction and that are before the Department of Health. These show an increase of nearly a couple of thousand beds.
They do not tot up to 30 beds in the Dublin general hospitals. That is the last figure I got from the Minister.
I have given to the Deputy details of the number of beds in each particular case and the additional beds have been provided. If the Deputy suggests that the information he has been given is incorrect he can surely bring the matter up in this House.
The information is not adequate.