Brendan Smith urges urgent upgrades at Cavan General Hospital
Brendan Smith urged the minister to prioritise upgrading and extending the emergency department at Cavan General Hospital and to confirm the project will proceed in writing. He said the HSE has placed the scheme at design stage and called for wider major capital investment to address COVID-19 and long-standing capacity issues.
Emergency department demand and capacity pressures
Brendan Smith said attendances have risen yearly at Cavan General, covering counties Cavanagh and Monaghan and patients from parts of Leitrim, Longford and Meath. He warned that inadequate accommodation is creating added pressure on patients, clinicians and staff and affecting delivery of health services.
HSE design stage and request for written confirmation
He welcomed that the HSE has the project at design stage and asked the minister to confirm in writing over the next few days that the emergency department upgrade will remain a priority. He pressed for the project to be activated and to move to the next stage.
Broader capital investment and COVID-19 impacts
Smith highlighted additional accommodation needs arising from COVID-19, saying pressures now extend to outpatients, day cases and elective care. He argued that current hospital infrastructure is not adequate to meet scheduled and unscheduled care demands.
Endoscopy unit and standalone facility need
He emphasised that the endoscopy unit has been very busy and serves patients beyond the immediate catchment area. He urged that the endoscopy unit be provided as a stand-alone facility to meet requirements and to avoid patients traipsing through the hospital.
Call for progress on prior plans
Smith noted substantial design work had been carried out up to 2015 on a major capital project and pressed that this work be brought forward so clinicians and support staff can operate without unbearable accommodation pressures. He sought a clear commitment from the minister that the capital projects will be progressed.
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Minister, I raise with you a number of occasions in this House through parliamentary questions and in other health related debates the need to upgrade and extend the emergency department at Cavan General Hospital and for a considerable time now there has been an increase in attendance on a yearly basis at Cavan General covering counties Cavanagh and Monaghan and patients also attend from parts of Leitrim, Longford and Meath so the inadequate accommodation obviously creates additional pressures for patients and staff and that in itself creates additional pressures on the delivery of health services there Earlier this month I was glad to learn from from the HSE that that project is now at design stage so Minister I would like if you would be able to confirm to me in writing over the next few days that that project will remain a priority it's absolutely needed and Minister one other thing alongside the emergency department development we need major capital investment at the hospital in view of the additional accommodation requirements arising from COVID-19 there are now particular pressures on other areas including outpatients day cases and electives and the current hospital infrastructure is not adequate to meet the current demands for scheduled and unscheduled care substantial work was carried out up to 2015 by a design team on a major capital project for the hospital so Minister I would be very anxious that that project would now move to the next stage because what we have at present is that there is unbearable pressures on clinicians on clinicians and all the support staff in trying to deliver care working extremely hard in difficult circumstances so Minister again I would like and I have to be fair you responded to other queries I raised in this format previously in writing so I would like if you would be able to confirm to me that that project will will be activated and that it will move on to the next stage for major capital investment you take Minister and you're familiar with the endoscopy unit we've been very busy over the number of years taking people from outside our catchment area that endoscopy unit needs a stand-alone facility nowadays to ensure they can meet with all the requirements and not have people traipsing through the hospital to access that particular unit so Minister would like if though if that particular capital project could be progressed because there are unbearable pressures in regard to accommodation at present time
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