asked the Minister for Health if he will recommend that a special unit be incorporated in the new wing of Sligo county hospital to deal with eye defects in children.
23.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Eye Defects in Children.
22.
asked the Minister for Health if he is aware that there is a long delay in County Sligo in having children with eye defects admitted to hospital for eye surgery; that those long delays militate against proper education; and if he will arrange to have the large number of such cases cleared in the immediate future.
I propose, with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 22 and 23 together.
I am aware that in Sligo, as in other parts of the country, there is delay in the admission to hospital of children with eye defects. With the recent opening of a new 12-bed unit in the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Dublin, it is expected that the position will ease considerably within the coming months. The new 18-bed ophthalmic unit included in the extension to Sligo County Hospital, work on which is in progress, will cater largely for eye defects in children. It is expected that this unit will be in operation by the beginning of 1969.