asked the Minister for Health if it is intended to have Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe, County Galway designated a general hospital.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Galway Hospital.
12.
I presume that when the Deputy refers to the designation of Portiuncula Hospital as a general hospital he has in mind the recommendations in the Fitzgerald Report. I would refer the Deputy to my comprehensive reply of 28th March to Parliamentary Questions about the hospital development programme which has equal application to Portiuncula Hospital.
The situation in summary is that until the new administrative bodies in the health field have reviewed how the basic considerations in the Fitzgerald Report might be applied in detail in particular areas it would be premature to make any statement about hospitals such as Portiuncula.
I would like to ask the Minister, when a question was asked before in regard to this, did he take into consideration the position of Portiuncula Hospital? It is situated in Ballinasloe, which is a very big town, and I would ask him to give very sympathetic consideration to this proposal.
I will give consideration to what is submitted to me by the bodies I mentioned in my reply on 28th March.
I was not here for that reply.
The Deputy will find it in the Official Report.
With regard to the geographical position, would the Minister review fully the case of Portiuncula because it serves a very big population in Counties Galway, Roscommon and Westmeath. It is on the main Galway to Dublin road and when serious accidents occur the injured have to be brought to either Galway or Dublin. The hospital is doing wonderful work and there are facts and figures to prove that. I would ask the Minister to give very serious consideration to this.
It would be premature for me to make any decision until I receive from the area health committee, the health board and the regional hospital boards their particular recommendation.
In the light of reported consultations between Portiuncula Hospital and Roscommon County Hospital with regard to combining the services of the two hospitals, will the Minister sympathetically consider any recommendation which goes to his Department?
I do not know what I will do until I see the proposals. There was a suggestion in the Irish Medical Times that the hospital authorities in Ballinasloe and Roscommon were having a dialogue but, so far, there has been no recommendation from them.
Am I to take it that the Minister takes advice from the Irish Medical Times?
The Minister reads anything he thinks might be helpful.