andMrs. Geoghegan-Quinn asked the Minister for Health the reason funds have not been provided for the necessary staffing and equipment at the new maternity unit in Galway Regional Hospital.
Written Answers. - Galway Regional Hospital Maternity Unit.
700.
The new maternity unit at Galway Regional Hospital is not fully completed yet. Only the delivery suite is completed and this is already in use. The remainder of the facility will not be ready for use until early November 1983 so the question of funds for equipment and staffing does not arise at this stage.
The health board has submitted a detailed schedule of the equipment required and this is currently being examined in my Department. The board has also submitted a request for 75 additional staff to commission the unit when it is completed. The implication of this request for staffing which would cost in excess of £800,000 per year will have to be determined in the light of the difficult budgetary situation and the current embargo on the recruitment of additional staff to the public service. I will also have to clarify why it will require 75 additional staff to cater in a new unit for the same number of patients as are being cared for in the existing unit.