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HSE decision on Our Lady of Lourdes X-Ray room must be reversed

8 November 2018

Statement by Ged Nash TD
Spokesperson on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Senator Ged Nash has told the Minister for Health that the HSE’s decision to ditch longstanding plans to include an additional x-ray room in the newly expanded Emergency Department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital will lead to more patients on trolleys at the busy A&E in Drogheda. 

Speaking in the Seanad today, the Labour Senator said;

“I worked hard during my own spell in government to get the resources for new beds and theatres for the Lourdes and the expansion of ED. This is on track.

“Part of the 9,000 square metre expansion involved the extension to ED.

“Now it appears that the newly expanded ED will have to make do with one existing x-ray room as a result of a unilateral, eleventh hour decision taken by the bean counters in the HSE.

“For €1million (only 5% of the overall project cost), the Lourdes ED would have a second, badly needed x-ray room in ED.

“Instead, the plan has been ditched. Without additional capacity in terms of diagnostics, more patients will be left waiting in ED and for longer, with hard working staff set to be out under even more pressure as patient numbers escalate.

“This decision is outrageous and it needs to be reversed immediately. Now is the time to do the job as it will be virtually impossible to ‘retrofit’ an x-ray room into the facility once the building becomes fully operational.”