Hospital Facilities
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-22
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Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (FG), Dún Laoghaire

It is an acute step-down unit for the larger model 3 and model 4 hospitals in the Cork and Kerry region that accepts patients who still require hospital care but no longer require an acute bed is absolutely critical. I have been looking at its usage. For example, during the fourth quarter of 2025, on average there were four vacant beds every day in Mallow hospital. There were 12 days in the fourth quarter of 2025 - remember that was a peak flu season in the early part of December - when ten or more beds were vacant. I will give an example. On 13 December, which was a Saturday - there are high numbers of discharges on Fridays - 13 beds were vacant in Mallow General hospital, a critical step-down facility, and 28 people in CUH on a Saturday morning were on trolleys. Thirteen beds were left vacant in Mallow while 28 people were on trolleys. That is a mortal sin. All week long CUH was under pressure with 53, 37, 39, 38 and 39 people on trolleys. It discharged patients on Friday and there were 13 beds in Mallow left vacant while 28 of the Deputy's constituents were on trolleys in CUH. The pattern was repeated two weeks later, with trolleys in Mercy University Hospital. It is not okay. It is not good enough. The Deputy and I are investing on behalf of the taxpayer in services across the south west for the benefit of the Deputy's people in Cork and it needs to be used.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-22/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:32+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-22