THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS Committee will investigate an alleged €7 million overspend at Our Lady’s Hospital Cashel.
The issue relates to claims made today at a meeting of the PAC that not one patient can receive a bed at the facility, which has been refurbished at a cost of over €22 million since 2009.
It was said in the committee that Independent TD Mattie McGrath wrote to the PAC last month about the issue that he had raised serious concerns about the overspend.
Addressing the committee today, Labour TD Alan Kelly said he agreed with McGrath and called it an “incredible story”. He described going to the hospital with Minister Simon Harris where they found no patients at all.
There wasn’t one single patient in the building. It’s not a case of where the €7 million has gone, it’s a case of what is it being used for.
He added that South Tipperary General Hospital has some of the worst overcrowding in Ireland, which is around 25km away from Our Lady’s, and that the HSE would not use any of the beds at the facility to help alleviate the trolley crisis.
At South Tipperary General today, there were 30 people on wards and trolleys according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s trolley watch figures.
Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald said that the HSE should address these issues.
PAC Chairman Seán Fleming proposed writing to the HSE to demand a “full explanation” on the situation.
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