Every day I am contacted by a member of my community who says either they, themselves, or a member of their family have attended the accident and emergency department in Beaumont Hospital. They invariably describe it as being like a war zone. That department is bursting at the seams with elderly people left on trolleys and on chairs while staff have to try to care for patients in an overcrowded and overrun emergency department. We are a wealthy modern country and there is no excuse for people in their most vulnerable moments to be forced to endure war zone conditions in their local hospital. We urgently need the redevelopment of the emergency department at Beaumont and the construction of a new critical care unit. I welcome that the Government has committed over €24 million to the hospital but we need to know timelines for when this work will commence and be finalised.

Sentiment score: -0.25