NAAS & KILDARE GENERAL, 3 October: by Brian Byrne. An £8.2 million allocation for Naas Hospital announced this week will add 62 extra beds and two new wards to the hospital facilities. The money was announced by minister for finance Charlie McCreevy TD (left), who said it will enable the hospital to be in a better position to cater for the needs of the ever-increasing population of County Kildare.
Local FF councillor Charlie Byrne, who had long campaigned for an extension to the hospital, has welcomed the new announcement for a further 62 beds at the hospital.
Meanwhile, the recently-proposed Progressive Democrats scheme to clear hospital waiting lists was a 'practical and workable solution' to a problem which currently has over 26,000 people on its waiting lists, says local PD senator John Dardis (right).
The scheme involves automatically moving public patients into private treatment if they have been on a waiting list for three months. Senator Dardis said the scale of the problem represented only 15% of cases treated privately last year and he believes there is 'additional capacity' in the Irish private health system to deal with it.
"We also believe there is huge capacity in Northern Ireland, in Britain and in continental Europe which can be used," he said, welcoming support for the idea from the Irish Patients' Association and the Independent Hospitals Association.
©2001brianbyrne/knn