Frances Fitzgerald
Ceist:293 Ms F. Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Health the plans, if any, he has to alleviate the critical situation in the Meath hospital in Dublin in relation to the current waiting list and the bed crisis.
Written Answers. - Meath Hospital (Dublin) Waiting List.
The position in relation to the bed situation at the Meath Hospital is that all of the in-patient beds are open and in use. In addition, the hospital has eight day beds in operation which allows suitable priority elective work to proceed. The Deputy will be pleased to learn that within the last two weeks the hospital has been able to transfer sixteen long-stay patients to more appropriate facilities as a result of the initiative which I took to relieve the pressure on in-patient beds. £500,000 was made available to the Eastern Health Board to fund additional places in nursing homes in order to relieve pressure on acute hospital beds.
On 1 July next the hospital will open a geriatric assessment rehabilitation unit with twenty dedicated beds for the care of elderly patients. This unit will be under the care of a newly appointed consultant geriatrician. Additional paramedical staff have also been approved by my Department for this unit.
In relation to waiting lists, the Deputy will be aware that the Government is providing £20 million to tackle the waiting list problem generally. The objective is to eliminate all waiting lists in excess of twelve months in the areas of orthopaedic surgery, ophthalmology, ear, nose and throat, cardiac surgery, vascular surgery and plastic surgery and in excess of 6 months for children awaiting ENT or eye treatment. This initiative will improve the situation in relation to waiting lists in the Meath Hospital and other hospitals throughout the country.