The situation at Cottage Hospital, Edenderry, County Offaly, is totally unacceptable. The Midland Health Board has, for a number of years, sought funding for a new 40-bed nursing unit at Edenderry. I ask the Minister of State this evening that matters be progressed at Departmental level. The Minister for Health, Mr. Howlin, has seen for himself the Victorian conditions at Edenderry district hospital; he went there during the course of a visit to the Midland Health Board in 1993. Following that visit I am sure he is left in no doubt as to the urgency of proceeding with this matter.
Conditions in the hospital, if they were to be described as Dickensian, would be somewhat complimentary to the building as it stands. The hospital has all the appearances of an old workhouse or county home, institutions that many of us believe had been, for many years, confined to the history books. At present there are a mere 14 patients in Edenderry hospital and the reason for such a small number of patients is that the first floor has been declared a fire hazard by Offaly County Council and it was necessary, therefore, for all the patients to be moved down to two rooms on the ground floor, a male room and a female room, with a day centre which could be described as little more than a box room.
The Matron and the nursing staff at Edenderry hospital are labouring admirably under very severe conditions and to put the matter in context, the nearest geriatric unit to Edenderry is in Mountmellick, some 22 miles away or, alternatively, in Birr, which is some 40 miles away. Therefore, there is a need in that part of County Offaly for a geriatric institution given that there is a demand in the area and also that Edenderry district hospital was, 100 years ago, a viable unit.
The 40-bed unit has been proposed by the Midland Health Board. Needless to say it has the backing of everybody in the community and I understand plans are at a most advanced stage. I ask the Minister for Health to give this greatly needed project the go-ahead and to include provision for the 40-bed nursing unit in the capital programme which, I understand, is at present in the course of preparation and which will be tendered shortly to the Midland Health Board.
