Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Great. A matter was raised with me recently concerning a person in unit 5B in hospital who required an electrocardiogram, ECG, scan. There was an eight-to-ten week waiting time to have the results read. The person who contacted me was concerned with the health of their loved one. Is it the norm that it would take this long for a scan to be read? The patient in this case ended up having a fall and had to go into the main hospital. As a result of a shortage of staff, however, personnel had to be brought in from St. Camillus Hospital to sit with that person. Is this the norm?

The hospital also has quite a few agency nurses, who have the same qualifications as everyone else. The question in this regard, however, concerns whether there is a higher cost with having to bring in all these agency nurses? If it was possible to have more full-time nurses, would that not keep down costs?