asked the Minister for Health what proposals have been made for the reorganisation of hospital accommodation in Athlone and what steps have been taken to give effect to these proposals.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Athlone Hospital Accommodation.
A proposal was made in 1946 for the erection of a new district hospital in Athlone. Owing to the volume of very urgent works included in the short-term hospital building programme and in consideration of the fact that there are a number of wellequipped hospitals convenient to Athlone, that is Mullingar (84 beds), Tullamore (75 beds), Roscommon (98 beds) as well as the proposed new hospital at Longford (88 beds) and the proposed extension to Portiuncula Hospital (100 beds), I felt obliged to ask the local authority to defer for the present the planning of this hospital and to seek a solution of the immediate problem by way of the modernisation of the present district hospital in which an up-to-date maternity unit had recently been provided. This request was made on the 30th March last. Reminders were sent on the 12th of May and the 3rd of June and it was only on 22nd June that I received the local authority's proposals along these lines. I hope to be able to convey my approval to them as soon as they have been examined in my Department.