asked the Minister for Health when the new psychiatric unit will be built in Roscommon.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Roscommon Psychiatric Unit.
48.
The provision of a psychiatric unit at Roscommon County Hospital has been approved in principle but I am not in a position to estimate the date on which such a unit will be provided or the manner in which it might be provided.
Is the Minister aware that a representative from his Department has made a recommendation that the psychiatric unit be placed within the Roscommon County Hospital and, to make way for this, that surgical cases be referred to Castlebar and Galway, and that, in consequence, the decision to federate Roscommon and Portiuncula Hospitals may now have to be abandoned?
I am not so aware. The question I was asked was in respect of a psychiatric unit in Roscommon, and I have said I am not in a position to approve the suggestion that was made by the Roscommon County Hospital or the board until I am satisfied that certain precautions have been taken.
Is the Minister aware that there were three new units recommended by the Western Health Board for Roscommon?
Yes.
Will the building start shortly?
I am not in a position to say that.
Is the Minister aware that his own Department have recommended that the unit be placed within the hospital and that the Western Health board have asked that it be placed as an addition to the hospital?
No, I have no information to that effect.