Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Deputy Neville. I welcome the Minister and thank him for taking the Adjournment debate. This is a very important issue in the part of the world the Deputy and I represent. I ask the Minister to intervene and personally review the recently announced decision of the HSE to close an operating theatre and surgical ward at Croom Hospital.

I shall give some initial background. Croom Hospital operates without a waiting list. Its policy is to treat patients on the basis of clinical need at the time of presenting. The Minister will be well aware that over the years the hospital has produced fantastic results in terms of its service as a centre of excellence to the people of the mid-western region. At the moment there is a suggestion that up to 30 specialist orthopaedic staff would be transferred from the Mid-Western Orthopaedic Regional Hospital, Croom to the Mid-Western Regional Maternity Hospital, Limerick and the general hospital. There is fear and concern among the staff that what is being suggested as a temporary arrangement between August and December could become a more prolonged issue, especially considering that up to eight weeks was taken out of Croom last year.

Croom is a centre of excellence. I realise there are budgetary constraints within the HSE but Croom is not part of this in the sense that it has the capability to deal with all national treatment purchase fund, NTPF, hip procedures for the country were it required by the HSE. It also has the capability to take on two extra operating theatres if the HSE so desired and this is preferable to closing down one of them, albeit as a temporary arrangement. We are concerned about it and the staff are concerned. Ultimately, those concerned are those who could potentially wind up on waiting lists in an unnecessary fashion given that Croom does not have a history of waiting lists. I petition the Minister on a personal basis to intervene in this matter, to review the situation and to call on the HSE to address it.

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