Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to focus in particular on Question No. 38, on the cardiology department of University Hospital Waterford. The Minister knows we have spoken about this at length. Unfortunately, there are now headlines in the local newspapers referring to a cardiac crisis. Services have been suspended for one or two afternoons per week in the hospital. This directly contradicts what I was told on 13 May 2013, which was that, with the formation of the group, replacement consultant posts in areas such as emergency medicine and dermatology would be forthcoming. The dermatology services have ceased to exist in Waterford. Therefore, we have been going backwards rather than forwards since the establishment of University Hospital Waterford. People who become unwell on Wednesday or Friday afternoon will have to go to Cork. We have been told the necessary staff are being recruited and that we are to work together within the group to ensure the necessary staff will be in place, such that we will have what we were told we would have, that is, a 24-hour CAT laboratory at the disposal of the people of Waterford and the rest of the south east. What is happening in regard to this? Circumstances are going from bad to worse. Services are being closed down.

I am sure the Minister is aware that, despite the removal of the dermatology service in University Hospital Waterford, Waterford has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the country. I want to know what will happen. In response to a Topical Issue matter I raised in the Dáil, the Department stated staff from the hospital in Waterford would go to the hospital in Cork to be trained. I want to know why the consultant dermatologists are not coming down from Cork to treat the people in University Hospital Waterford.

What will happen to cardiology services? We were given a specific undertaking, in light of the Higgins report, that the cardiology services will be available to the people of Waterford and the south east on a 24/7 basis.

I would like to ask Mr. Healy about early intervention teams and vacant posts. He said they are being addressed locally. He will appreciate that with regard to early intervention, waiting lists are counterintuitive for the children we are trying to help. Children are usually screened when they are three years of age. However, in Waterford the psychologist posts have been vacant for nine and 12 months. Therefore, the children in Waterford are again to be disadvantaged by the fact that no solution has been found locally to ensure they will be screened and receive the services they require. When Mr. Healy says services and vacant posts are being addressed locally, what does he mean? Why is it not happening in Waterford?