asked the Minister for Health whether his Department had given any consideration to the modernisation of the Richmond Hospital, Dublin, with particular reference to the installation of lifts.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Modernisation of Dublin Hospital.
108.
A number of improvements have been sanctioned in recent years at St. Laurence's Hospital which includes the Richmond Hospital. On the 25th September, 1968, the Hospitals Commission submitted a recommended scheme of improvements for the hospital, involving expenditure of about £145,000. This scheme, together with a number of other improvement proposals submitted by the hospital amounting to some £47,000, is under consideration in my Department.
A major scheme of this kind would have to be considered in the light of the changes recommended in the report of the consultative council on the general hospital services, which I have accepted in principle. The retention of St. Laurence's as a general hospital in its present location is not envisaged in the report. I have requested the principal authorities concerned with the general hospital services on the north side and the south side of the city to consider jointly with their medical staffs the manner in which the council's recommendations can be implemented. I have asked the committees to report back to me early in the new year and I would expect to be in a position in the light of the north-side committee's report to decide the extent to which it will be necessary to maintain general hospital services in St. Laurence's Hospital for an interim period pending the implementation of the council's recommendations.
With regard to the particular question of lifts for the hospital, I have already agreed to make a grant available for a lift for the Whitworth Hospital. The question of providing two further lifts for the Hardwicke and auxiliary hospitals at a cost of £8,000 each, is being considered in conjunction with the other proposals received.