asked the Minister for Health the areas in the State which will be over 30 miles from hospital services if the hospital plan of Comhairle na nOspidéal is fully implemented; and the provision that will be made to provide each area with adequate services.
Written Answers. - Hospital Services.
30.
The guidelines produced by Comhairle na nOspidéal in September, 1973, for the development of the general hospital system in this country, proposed that the general aim should be to organise acute hospital services so that the population served would be within a radius of 30 miles of the hospital centre. I accepted the Comhairle guidelines as providing a reasonable basis on which decisions could be taken.
The General Hospital Development Plan which I announced on 21st October, 1975, ensure that, when it is implemented, the vast majority of the population will be within a radius of 30 miles of an acute general hospital. That part of the population which will be somewhat outside the 30-mile radius is estimated at less than 2 per cent of the total population and is mostly confined to the western seaboard. In the planning of the general hospital requirements for the country, the needs of these areas are taken fully into consideration and adequate provision is made at the nearest general hospital.