Richard O'Donoghue Demands Timeline for New Limerick Hospital

Thank you Comhairle, and at the outset here I'd like to, there was a committee meeting downstairs this morning and members of the hospital group Sandra Broderick and the HSE and Mike are in the gallery and I'd like to acknowledge them for the work that they've been doing in Limerick within the hospital sector that we have and I'll be looking forward to the new hospital and the new wing coming and I would like to see a timeline on that and will it be a design build. Patient safety is a huge thing and we've seen one of the cases that was held in the NHL which I brought up here on many occasions which was the Jessica Sheedy case which is now gone to the High Court. I would not like to see any other family going through something like that again and this was brought up on many occasions and this is still an ongoing inquiry. So what I want to know today is when are we getting a new hospital in Limerick? When are we getting the new extension in Limerick? When are we going to have a hospital of excellence that will be based on the side of a motorway which will be accessible for not only people in Limerick, it'll be accessible for people in Tipperary, Clare and all the other areas where we will be able to have access not like the children's hospital we have at the moment that it'll be very hard to get to it. At least there was a small bit of forward thinking on the position of where the new hospital will be going in Limerick and I welcome that from the point of view of patient safety for all the counties that will be going to a hospital which I want to make sure happens and I don't want to delay it over years and we'll be talking about this in five years time and ten years time again. I do hope that the lessons have been learned from the last hospital. It will be a design build on budget, on time. That's what a design build does. That means that it's factored into whatever contractor takes it on, they take the risk. You have the control of the risk, they take the risk. That's a design build. That means delivery on budget, on time. Otherwise we don't have it and they don't make money. I'm okay with that once it's built on time. That means we have people's safety, patient safety. We can then have the people that we need to encourage from that have left these shores back home to Ireland to say that you're now going to be part of a good news story for the Munster region, that we will have a hospital that you can actually excel in yourself and provide patient safety across this country. That's the goal here and I want to make sure that we have it and I'd like to see if we would have a timeline on that and to see when the diggers will be in the ground and when will it be delivered. Thank you for raising what is a very very important issue for many many people in the Midwest more generally and I acknowledge that you have acknowledged some progress in respect of development and health services in the Midwest and you've paid tribute to the Chief Executive Officer and the team there at University Hospital Limerick in terms of that progress and it needed to be made and we need to continue to work to enhance services, particularly the quality of services and best outcomes and in particular that patient safety would always be at the center of everything that is done. The first principle in medicine is not to do any harm and that's something that clinicians have to always have in the uppermost in their minds and indeed everybody involved in the administration of a hospital. Now the last 90 bed block that has been built was built on time and within budget so we need to acknowledge that. A lot of infrastructure is by the way but of course understandably in the context of accountability it's the ones that don't get the headlines. So we're confident that the next 90 bed block will also come in on budget and on time as well and the contract has already been awarded for that 90 beds and that's crucial and that's critical but also the Minister will be establishing shortly a project board to deal with health services not just in terms of a new hospital in Limerick but the broader health services for the Midwest because Ennis will need more services, Nina also and one has to look at the entirety of the hospital campuses in the Midwest to get the optimum outcome here. We've seen that in the Northeast, we've seen that in terms of some of the hospital groups whereby the utilization of other hospitals apart from the tertiary center has been very advantageous to patients in terms of access to outpatient clinics or endoscopy or a variety of diagnostic facilities and so on which complements then the work that takes place in the acute hospital or the tertiary hospital and I think that is the objective of the project board that the Minister will establish to get the complete picture for the entirety of the Midwest and as you know deputies from Clare, deputies from Tipperary are very focused on that aspect of it as well of course in terms of developing a new hospital and the good news is a site has been secured and all of us and you'd know in whether you're building a school or anything securing a site is key and can help us to accelerate the deliberations in respect of that and that the objective is to have the best state-of-the-art services to service a growing population in the Midwest which is going to continue to grow. Deputy O'Donoghue. Thank you Taoiseach and I and I do acknowledge and I've acknowledged the Minister already on the work that has been done within Limerick and we went through a very very bad spell and when the first initial hospital of excellence was it was brought up in 2009 which those people are no longer in the HSE services they actually downsized NENA and NS and they downsized then Johns and it's great to see today that you acknowledge it it's actually the reverse needs to happen which was one of the first things I actually said when I got elected here six years ago when from the health services they are the places that we needed to make sure that they were invested in and you've just acknowledged it there now the investments need to go back in there again but I do acknowledge the work that has been done to date and it's refreshing now with the Minister that is there in place at the moment but as we have that now and we have good people in good places that want to get good things done let's get them done and let's work together and get it done I do it now I don't mind who does the job once it's done and at the moment it's been done but I need to make sure that we have the timelines that the delivery is done in patient safety and as I say I do acknowledge that you know what said that NENA and NS and those areas need to invest. I've always been a strong advocate for investment in NENA and indeed in NS and indeed Clanmel as well it has benefit for very significant investment but that's in a different area to NENA and NS which is part of the Midwest and provision of services. The last 90 bed block was on time and along with the investment deputy we need constant reform of how we provide services as well because there's been a lot of investment in health services in the last five years which needs to be acknowledged and there has to be a relentless focus also on outcomes from that investment and quality of patient care and things have changed and clinicians are changing you know practices all of the time advancing technologies advancing mechanisms and methodologies and so on which improves efficiency all round but you can be absolutely assured that we're focused and the ministry is in particular on timely delivery of the next commitments and particularly the 90 bed block that we want delivered on time and within budget.