asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he is aware that there is a large number of patients on the waiting list of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Dun Laoghaire; and, if so, if he will state if there are any proposals before his Department for the extension of the hospital to accommodate such patients; if so, if he will indicate the nature of the proposals; if they have been or will be sanctioned; and if the maintenance grant per patient will be increased.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Accommodation at Dun Laoghaire Hospital.
I am aware of the large number of patients on the waiting list of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Dun Laoghaire. On the 17th July, 1944, I approved, provisionally, of a proposal to install 43 additional beds and an operating suite in the hospital at the cost of the Hospitals Trust Fund, subject to the usual conditions for securing the due expenditure of the grant from the Hospitals Trust Fund for the purposes specified as required by Section 25 (5) of the Hospitals Act, 1933. On the 30th April last, it was intimated to me that the authorities of the hospital are not prepared to agree to those conditions and the matter is now the subject of correspondence with the solicitors for the hospital authorities.
I am unable to approve of any increase in the maintenance grant per patient until I receive an assurance that the hospital authorities are prepared to abide by their existing agreement regarding the quality of the milk to be supplied to the patients in the hospital.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary speed up the correspondence which is passing between himself and the hospital authorities with a view to providing beds which are so urgently required?
There will be no delay at all if the hospital authorities accept the conditions attaching to the grant.
In the meantime, we are interested in the patients—I am sure the Parliamentary Secretary is also interested—who are waiting for beds and it would be well if the Parliamentary Secretary would use his influence to speed up the provision of those beds. The conditions attaching to the grant do not affect me very much nor do they affect the patients. I am interested in the provision of beds for tuberculous patients.
So am I, but I want them for a special class of patients.