Calls for urgent action on Phase 3 of Kildare hospital
Aontú's Una O'Connor calling for advancement of Naas General Hospital project
Aontú candidate for Kildare North, Una O'Connor, has called for urgent action on Phase 3 of Naas General Hospital.
Ms O’Connor, who gained over 2,000 first preference votes in the recent general election, has said that
"the silence is deafening” regarding the future development of the hospital.
According to Ms O'Connor, planning permission for Phase 3 was originally granted in
2014 but as no progress was made, the permit was extended for a further five years.
However, permission expired in December 2024 due to lack of progress.
“There appears to be no intention by HSE or Hospital Management to advance the project. Instead, we see a hotch-potch of prefabs taking up any available space”, Ms O'Connor said this week.
“The building known as the “temporary morgue” – another prefab – is jammed alongside unsightly hospital utilities and has been in situ for the past 24 years. Families facing the dreadful task of identifying their deceased have to walk past a forty-foot shipping container and two large refuse skips with noisy compaction units which are in regular use.”
Ms O'Connor stated that inside the hospital, family rooms attached to the three main wards – Moate Ward, Allen Ward and Curragh Ward – have been repurposed as ad-hoc extensions to the wards with three additional beds in each.
She said that staff have stated that these rooms are not suitable as wards due to lack of bedside oxygen supply, wash-hand basins or bathrooms.
Furthermore, she added, visitors to very sick patients are left standing in corridors and landings where previously they could gather with dignity in the family rooms.
Ms O’Connor said: “When canvassing for the general election, numerous people brought to my
attention the lack of privacy or comfort when accompanying their loved ones through critical illness. The outstanding work and commitment by hospital staff is undermined by the dismal state of hospital infrastructure.
“Management are just reacting with sticking plasters – a prefab here, a modular building there. They lack the requisite ambition for the third phase.
“I have asked my Oireachtas colleagues in Aontú to bring this matter to the Minister’s attention. A Parliamentary Question has been lodged to uncover the status of the planned extension which is
badly needed and long overdue.”