John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be very brief. Some of the questions will require a "yes" or "no" answer. Did the review take into account the clinical risk and safety? Is it not general practice that the clinical safety of the patient is paramount in the review? Does Dr. Herity believe the recommendations of the report would have been different if clinical risk and safety were explicitly included in the terms of reference? I will refer to the briefing note from the HSE which was sent to Dr. Herity. It said the second cardiac laboratory at University Hospital Waterford, UHW, was not a top investment priority. Did Dr. Herity take this note into account when conducting the review? Did it influence the outcome? Was the HSE's reluctance to commit to the second cath lab raised during the various conversations that took place between Dr. Herity and the HSE officials? They are fairly straightforward questions.

Does Dr. Herity accept the methodology used to calculate catchment population for cardiac services in the south east and patient flows to the unit in Waterford did not take into account constraints on the capacity of UHW, which all of the consultants have noted? I am almost finished. In the report, it said it would be a mistake to assume the effective catchment area for UHW was represented by every resident of the counties in the region, as this would take into account the different levels of cardiac care provided by the different hospitals. Is it general practice to use the effective catchment area while undertaking reviews? Has Dr. Herity ever used this process previously?

I have two more brief questions. Dr. Herity said he did not make contact with the consultants, whom I have met, in Wexford and Tipperary, and they were not visited. Will Dr. Herity tell us why? He gave a direct answer and said he did not so I would like to know why. Does Dr. Herity accept that their inclusion would have brought the UHW unit above the minimum requirements? Cork University Hospital, CUH, performed 650 PCIs, which are cardiac stent procedures, in 2015, while UHW performed 580. In addition, CUH has a minimal waiting time for angiography, while wait times for patients in the south east averaged 18 months. Does Dr. Herity think, based on that alone, that there is a case for an additional lab at UHW on the grounds of equity of access?

Perhaps Dr. Herity will come back to me on the "yes" or "no" questions when he is replying.