Cork mental health unit ‘needs massive investment’

The unsuitability of the acute mental health unit at Mercy University Hospital (MUH) for dementia patients and the need for an acute hospital on Cork City’s northside were among issues raised at the launch of a series of healthcare documents by Sinn Féin.

The documents — ‘Investing in Mercy University Hospital’, ‘Investing in Cork University Hospital’, and ‘Home Help and Care at Home’ — are intended as “lobbying tools” to “strengthen the case for serious investment in Cork hospitals and in home care in Cork”, according to Sinn Féin TD for Cork South Central Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire.

They contain, inter alia, details of capital investment, agency spend, patient waiting times, theatre space, and operating budgets — information which is not new but which has been pulled together in individual publications.