Is the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications to reply?
Adjournment Debate. - Mayo General Hospital.
On behalf of the Minister for Health.
I mean no disrespect to the Minister, but I regret that the Minister for Health is not present to reply to a number of questions.
In 1972 the need for Castlebar General Hospital, as it was then known, was identified by the Western Health Board. The brief for the development was completed in 1977 and forwarded to the Department of Health. Ten years later the then Minister for Health, Barry Desmond, approved the commencement of part of the development. Phase 1 of the hospital was completed in 1991 and brought into service. This development included 110 beds, theatres, departments of radiology, an out-patients department and a catering department. The completion of this development is still awaited.
It was never envisaged in the design brief that this would be a phased development, and the present difficulties in the hospital reflect this. It is necessary for the development to be completed for the following reasons. First, there is an urgent need for a geriatric assessment unit. This hospital serves a catchment area with the highest percentage of people over 65 years of age. Second, the casualty department, with three cubicles, is totally inadequate to deal with an average of 16,500 patients each year. The isolation of the casualty department from the X-ray and ward areas costs approximately £30,000 per year on an ongoing basis. This department is also the treatment centre for the major accident plan for Horan International Airport, Knock Shrine and the Asahi Plant. Third, the proposed centre of the building is now at the extreme end and staff have to walk approximately a quarter of a mile to retrieve patients' charts on admission, thus giving rise to very lengthy delays.
Fourth, the hospital stores are located 150 metres from the main hospital building. Fifth, the maternity department and labour ward require major upgrading and improvement. Sixth, there is no flexibility in the integration of male and female patients in the same speciality due to a lack of adequate toilet accommodation and privacy. The facilities for female patients are inadequate — four toilets, one bath and two wash-hand basins for 34 patients. The insufficient number of medical beds has led to constant overcrowding. The Minister's Department received evidence of this some time ago. In addition, there is a general lack of privacy in the outpatients department which was originally designed as a selfcontained unit.
The last official transmission of information on this matter took place in the Seanad on 3 February 1994 when the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Deputy Stagg, in reply to Senator Burke assured him that the need for the second phase of this development is fully accepted and will be given the go ahead as soon as resources permit. He went on to say:
When account is taken of the hospital developments currently in progress and the other contractual obligations and priority commitments to be provided for, particularly in areas such as the provision of health centres and facilities for the handicapped and disabled, it will probably not be possible to proceed with phase 2 in the near future.
I want to ask a number of questions to which I am not sure Minister Cowen will be able to respond. Will he confirm that this scheme will be completed by the Government during its term of office? Former Ministers, Deputy O'Hanlon, Deputy O'Rourke and EU Commissioner Flynn gave the green light to this development, yet nothing has happened to date. Will the Minister confirm that this capital development is the number one priority of the Western Health Board? Public representatives have been told by the health board that it is its number one priority, yet when a delegation recently visited the Minister for Health confusion arose over this matter. Will he confirm that this development is the number one priority of the Western Health Board in terms of capital and investment and say whether this has been so notified to the Department of Health?
Will the Minister explain the discrepancy of approximately £9 million between the figures for the completion of the phase 2 development as between the Friends of Mayo General Hospital and his Department? I will give the reasons for this discrepancy. Some of the developments referred to by the Minister of State in the Seanad have already been completed, for example, the conversion of the existing hospital to provide a CSSD physical medicine department and nurse accommodation, and it has been decided that a nurses' training school is not required. The Department has said it will cost £15 million to complete this development while the health board says it will cost £5.5 to £6 million. The Discrepancy between the figures has led to confusion about the resources available to the Department.
Reference has been made to the consultants who are leaving Mayo General Hospital. Will the Minister confirm if he has received any factual evidence which support these reports? If consultants are leaving the hospital it will not benefit the hospital or the people of Mayo. The people accept the need for the completion of this development. The work can be completed over the next three and a half years at a minimum cost each year. When the work is completed we will have a fine hospital with over 300 beds which will provide medical facilities to the people of Mayo well into the next century.
The Minister for Health is unavoidably absent which, as the Deputy is aware, can happen from time to time.
I would like to thank Deputy Kenny for giving me this opportunity of responding, on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy Howlin, to the issues he has raised in relation to Mayo General Hospital.
In relation to the reported departure of consultants, the Western Health Board has no information regarding any consultants leaving Mayo General Hospital. Where consultants are leaving employment, three months notice is required and no such notice has been received by the board.
In relation to the phase 2 development of the hospital, the Minister for Health met a deputation from the friends of Mayo General Hospital some months ago and he indicated that the phase 2 development would be considered in the context of the health capital programme for 1994, having regard to the availability of resources and the many other competing demands for hospital developments. The Minister accepts the need for the second phase of this development and it will be given the go-ahead as soon as resources permit.
Phase 2, as planned, includes two ward blocks, the provision of a CSSD, provided for physical medicine, administration, nurse changing, hostel accommodation, on-call staff accommodation and oratory, the extension and upgrading of the obstetric unit as well as a new mortuary.
The estimated cost of these works is in the region of £15 million and it would be wrong to give the impression that this scheme can be accommodated in the 1994 capital programme, given the limited capital funding available.
It is understood that the board may be considering proposals for a reduced scheme but the Department of Health has no details of these proposals at present. As soon as such proposals are submitted to the Department, they will be considered in the light of the overall availability of resources.
This year's revenue expenditure allocation to the Western Health Board included a special allocation of £200,000 to allow for development of a satelite dialysis unit at Mayo General Hospital. This will improve greatly the service available in the Western Health Board Region for dialysis patients.
The Minister is sorry he cannot be more specific in relation to the timing of phase 2 of the Castlebar scheme, but the infrastructural deficiency created by the need to complete the scheme is acknowledged and every effort will be made to achieve some progress in the medium term.
The specific questions Deputy Kenny raised on the Adjournment would be best dealt with during Question Time.
The Dáil adjourned at 5.35 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Friday, 4 March 1994.