Peter Roche (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I say to the Minister, Mr. Gloster and the team of departmental officials that it is heartening that, today, we again have access to so many people who matter to us in terms of managing our health services. I do not want to spoil the show now by asking my questions. I have two or three I want to put to the witnesses. One is about a PET scanner. We do not have a PET scanner for the west and north west. I know that, at some time in the past, maybe this summer just gone, there was a parliamentary question put down and it was suggested that we would have a PET scanner in 2033, if my information is right. That is eight years away. What I want to understand is why that delay would be so. What is causing it? Is it a manufacturing issue or is it the case that we do not have the capacity to be able to purchase it and put it in place? I would like to think that there is a very real need for it. That is my first question.

Most of us who have an interest in the health services right around the country engage with the relevant stakeholders. I had a very productive meeting with the Irish Cancer Society and it informed me that the LINAC, that is, the radiation therapy machine, was reportedly utilised only 40% of the time. I am talking about University Hospital Galway. It is not the case, I am sure, that there are not enough patients requiring that. My understanding is that it is a human resources issue. I would like to understand what steps are being and will be taken in terms of having that utilised more than the 40%. If it is human resources, all the better. I am sure human resources could be resolved, but perhaps that is not something that can be delivered right now. I refer in particular to the increasing cases of cancer.

My final question is probably a little more complex and is one I am sure has come to the Minister and the CEO before. In terms of patients presenting at accident and emergency with emotional or mental health issues and where they have been referred by their GPs, it is the only show in town, so to speak, and they sit and wait until such time as they get a referral to psychiatric services. We have heard of very tragic circumstances where people walked out from accident and emergency departments and we lost them. I would have a real passion about a scheme whereby if a referral is made, the person would be signposted directly to the psychiatric services as opposed to sitting and waiting with someone who might have a broken leg or arm. These people are not managing in their own heads. I really would love us to get to a system whereby a streamlining of the process would be such that once the referral is made, the person will be seen in the psychiatric services in whatever hospital, thus giving him or her reassurance.

Those are my three questions.