Vol. 417 No. 9
223 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health if he will make a statement on recent reports that no elective plastic surgery procedures can be undertaken in the national centre at St. James's Hospital, Dublin, unless the present bed complement is doubled.
I understand from the hospital authorities that elective plastic surgery procedures are being carried out at St. James's Hospital. The admission of a patient to hospital is a clinical decision for the consultant in charge of the case and priority is accorded to urgent cases.
Should a patient's condition be causing concern, it is open to his or her general practitioner to contact the consultant concerned with a view to expediting the case.
