Hospital Services Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-21 ============================================================ Noel Grealish (IND), Galway West I thank the Senator for raising this issue. As she rightly said, I am taking this on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. As regards the two issues the Senator raised, I hope that those two young lads will get back to full health. I will ensure that the Minister gets a transcript of what the Senator raised here and I will ask her to reply directly to the Senator on those two issues. Nobody wants to hear of situations like that but, at the end of the day, we hope they will be okay. I will now read the script I have been given by the Department. I thank the Senator for raising this issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. Cavan Monaghan General Hospital is part of the Dublin and North East hospital group. The two sites are 46 km apart and operate as a single hospital with an integrated managerial and clinical governance system, care pathways and support functions. The hospital currently provides services to the population of both counties and surrounding areas. All acute inpatient services are based in Cavan General Hospital. Both hospital sites provide extensive outpatient, theatre and day services, and Cavan General hospital provides 24 hour emergency care. The HSE has advised that Cavan General Hospital operates in line with national healthcare standards and established clinical governance frameworks. Both the surgical and emergency departments follow protocols, with care delivery guided by national policies, clinical guidance and regular oversight mechanisms. The hospital is subject to ongoing monitoring, audit and quality assurance processes which are designed to maintain high standards of safety and effectiveness. As part of the ongoing quality assurance process, HIQA inspected Cavan Monaghan General Hospital in 2024. The emergency department and four ward areas were assessed during this unannounced inspection. The findings of this inspection were positive, with ten out of 11 standards found to be compliant or substantially compliant. In Cavan emergency department, trolley numbers have decreased by 20% in the last year. In the same period, waiting times have also reduced. It is important to note these improvements occurred in the context of increased emergency department attendances. Additionally, the waiting list for inpatient and day case procedures in Cavan has reduced by 15% compared with April 2025. Any concerns regarding care or procedures are addressed through established review systems including incident reporting and clinical audit. There has been significant investment in Cavan Monaghan General Hospital in recent years. The combined budget for the hospitals has increased by 5% from €115 million in 2020 to €183 million in 2026. Staffing has increased by 325, an increase of 28%, and bed numbers have increased by 11, a 4.8% increase since 2020. According to the acute inpatient hospital bed expansion plan, which aims to deliver 4,367 acute hospital inpatient beds by 2031, a total of 97 beds will be delivered at Cavan Monaghan General Hospital by 2028. This includes 23 beds delivered between 2021 and 2024 and 74 beds delivered between 2025 and 2028. The hospital delivers safe and timely access to patients and the community and performs highly in national unscheduled care and emergency department key performance indicators. A new purpose-built emergency department and additional bed capacity received planning permission and started to progress through the development stages in 2025. The provision of a new extension block to the existing hospital front entrance, including a new oncology unit and upgraded pharmacy services, is currently at design stage. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:59+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-21