Minister Denis Naughten has received an update on Roscommon Hospital following a meeting in Leinster House on September 29^th with Minister for Health Simon Harris.  Minister Naughten will hold a meeting this evening (October 26^th) with more than 200 people in Roscommon Town and outline the following information received from Minister Harris today which provides an update to the September 29^th meeting.

• The Rehabilitation Unit.
  A specialist rehabilitation unit is to be developed at Roscommon County Hospital in association with the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH). The project will deliver 20
  beds and therapy suite accommodation. On 7th September 2016, at the official opening of the Endoscopy Unit, Minister Harris announced approval for funding to progress the project to planning stage. Currently the project team is being assembled.
• Appointment of a Rehabilitation Consultant, RUH
  The Saolta Healthcare Group has advised that approval was received to appoint a Consultant
  in Rehabilitation Medicine to Roscommon University Hospital in association with the
  National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire. A recruitment campaign was carried out
  but was unsuccessful in identifying suitable candidates.
  The HSE National Recruitment Service has advised that the approved Consultant
  Rehabilitation Medicine post is currently with the Public Appointment Service and will go to advertisement as soon as possible in accordance with normal recruitment procedures. The
  interview board for the competition is currently being assembled.

• CSSD, Theatre Upgrade, Replacement Ward Block
  Business cases are currently being developed to seek funding for the provision of a dedicated new CSSD unit and to upgrade and extend existing theatre capacity. These upgrades will enable compliance with HIQA standards and enable the expansion of day case surgery on site. A brief to provide a new ward block is also being developed.
•  Provision of home help and homecare packages in the Roscommon area
  The Winter Initiative 2016-2017 commenced at the beginning of October. The Initiative
  provides 270,000 additional home help hours and an extra 2,000 homecare packages.
  Expansion of a Galway/Roscommon Community Intervention Team should also be of assistance to the area.

• Extending the hours of service of the MAU and MIU
  The Programme for a Partnership Government contains a commitment to a review of
  MAUs/AMAUs and similar units. Part of the purpose of this review is to examine the opening hours of such units, with a view to extending these opening hours, where appropriate. The operation of the Roscommon University Hospital MAU, including its opening hours, will be considered during the course of this review.