CITY TRIBUNE
Budget hike for HSE’s community healthcare plan
This year’s allocation for the HSE’s Community Healthcare West is €483 million – an increase of almost €35m over the 2018 operational plan budget.
However, €9.25m of that budget increase relates to pay restoration under the Haddington Road and Lansdowne Road agreements.
In an assessment of the finances for primary care, social care, mental health and health and wellbeing services for Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, the HSE division admits that based on current expenditure trends, there will be a cost overrun of €4.5m for primary care alone for the year.
That is mainly due to cost pressures for medical and surgical supplies, incontinence wear, aids and appliances and costs associated with National Refugee Reception Centre in Ballaghderreen.
Last year’s primary care expenditure in 2018 exceeded the funded allocation by nearly €9m.
Community Healthcare West’s 2018 annual report and 2019 delivery plan were launched at a meeting of the Regional Health Forum.
The report shows waiting lists for all services continue at the same level or have grown.
The number of physiotherapy patients on the assessment waiting list for up to a year was 4,069 last year – up from 3,815 in 2017. Patients waiting for nearly a year for an assessment for occupational therapy was just under 2,000, while the number of psychology patients on the waiting list for nearly a year for treatment was almost 500.
Patients waiting for an appointment with the podiatry department reduced from over 1,300 to 196, while those waiting for an eye specialist increased slightly to 2,300. Over 2,000 audiology patients were waiting for up to 52 weeks, while over 1,000 were waiting a similar period after being referred for speech and language therapy.
The number of complaints logged by Galway patients was 162.
Among the projects implemented during the year were the Eolas Project, an information and support programme for families, close friends and service users with a diagnosis of psychosis or bipolar disorders.
A homeless service was established for Galway with plans to expand it this year. Staff also started a suicide prevention programme in the three counties called Eden.
Chief Officer for Community Healthcare West, Tony Canavan, said one of the key changes that occurred during 2018 was the delivery of mental health services after engagement with the service users who helped to plan and co-design the programmes.
Five primary care centres opened last year in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon area – just one in Galway, located in Tuam.
X-ray and ultrasound services will be rolled out at the Tuam health complex by September to enable easier access for those living in North and East Galway. There are plans to begin building a primary care centre in Moycullen this month with an expected completion date of June next year.
A project to house 30 individuals with complex mental health needs is due to begin in Galway City and County this month while there are plans to open a geriatric day hospital service in Galway, facilitating the reduction in Emergency Department attendances and unnecessary hospital admissions by the end of the year.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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