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2016.11.15
4.8 Senator S.C. Ferguson of the Minister for Health and Social Services regarding the laundry services at the Hospital: [9714]
Will the Minister advise whether there has recently been any inability to obtain additional bedding in the Hospital over week-ends and, if so, what the reason for that was, and will he further advise whether the in-house laundry has been outsourced?
Senator A.K.F. Green (The Minister for Health and Social Services):
I can confirm that there have been a couple of occasions in the last month, or so, where staff have identified difficulty in obtaining laundry supplies at the weekend and I apologise for that. The Facilities Department have investigated these concerns. They have identified that stockpiling of laundry in some clinical areas, including those that do not operate at weekends, was going on and they have now agreed appropriate stock levels for the department. They identified that the last laundry delivery on Friday is too early. We have now changed that. They also identified that there is more Saturday working in the hospital than previously and stocks have been adjusted to take account of this activity. I can confirm that the laundry service has not been and it is not planned to be outsourced.
4.8.1 Senator S.C. Ferguson:
I thank the Minister for the work that has been done, but it still does not take away the fact that the temperature in the hospital has been turned down, as I recall, to save money and this will become obviously a constant worry to people who are in hospital over the weekend that they will not be able to have an extra blanket to keep warm. Will the Minister confirm that there are instructions that the blankets should be available over the weekends?
Senator A.K.F. Green:
I do not think the Senator listened to my answer. My answer said that we had identified some problems. There were 3 areas where we have now taken action and, in addition to that, we have put £40,000 worth of extra laundry into the system. The heating has not been turned down primarily to save money. The heating has been turned down because patients told us they were too warm.