Tipperary TD slams decision on Mid-West elective hospital as a 'slap in the face'

A decision by the Department of Health not to fund an elective hospital covering Tipperary and the Mid-West has been met with disbelief.

The need for such a facility has been touted as one of the ways in which to cut hospital waiting times and ease the trolley crisis at University Limerick Hospital, the main hospital for north Tipperary.

The news comes just days after the publication of the Deloitte report into patient flow at Limerick which was commissioned by University Limerick Hospital Group CEO, Prof Colette Cowan.

That report found that massive funding in beds and staffing was required to ease problems at the facility.

Local representatives on the HSE West Forum, which covers north Tipperary, were told last week that the hospital bed capacity was working at 105% in 2021.

Tipperary Labour Party TD Alan Kelly has described the decision not to build an elective facility as “astonishing as such a hospital is so badly needed”, and a “slap in the face to the people of Tipperary”.

Deputy Alan Kelly said that the Deloitte report emphasised the great need there was for more beds and staff if the Mid-West was to catch up with other regions.

“This was obvious to me for years but it’s good to have it in a comprehensive report now,” he said.

However, he said that the fact was, though, that Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly had now confirmed the Government had no intention of building an elective hospital that would help alleviate the pressures on UHL.

“This is despite the Taoiseach agreeing with me that there is a need for such a hospital on the floor of the Dáil. He also have a similar response to his own party deputy Willie O’Dea,” said Deputy Kelly.

It now was confirmed though that Minister Donnelly was ignoring his party leader and Taoiseach and not going to progress such a project.

“There is obviously a difference of opinion between the two,” he said.

Describing the news as a “slap in the face to the people of Tipperary, Clare and Limerick”, Deputy Kelly said that all the reports commissioned in the world won’t change the fact that the Mid-West will continue to have an “overcrowded, underfunded and understaffed acute hospital service while this Government refuses to face the glaringly obvious”.

Deputy Kelly put in a Parliamentary Question to Minister Donnelly on the issue and was told in the Minister’s reply: “The development of additional capacity will be provided through dedicated, standalone elective hospitals in Cork, Galway and Dublin. The Government decision is very clear on this. No other locations are under active consideration.