Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

Nothing would make me happier than to see a consistent improvement in maternity services at Portiuncula University Hospital. That would leave every woman in the region comfortable that, in the case of a complex pregnancy, she and her baby will be safe. Nothing would make me happier than to get that point of confidence and for that to be the case for everyone there. We are all working towards that. We see evidence of improvement but it has to continue to improve and be sustained.

With regard to the use of primary care centres, yes, this is exactly what we are trying to do. I am already seeing good evidence of the use of primary care centres. For example, neurology services are being moved out of the acute hospital to deliver services in Newcastle West, Limerick. That is an example of moving services out of acute hospitals for people to be treated more conveniently. We are trying to avoid hospital attendances by having local injury units and other primary care facilities available more locally and in a way that is convenient for the patient. For example, I have just announced the opening of the local injury unit in Ballina. It is my expectation that it will run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. Similarly, there is a good acute medical assessment unit, AMAU, in Mayo University Hospital which at the moment is only running five days a week. It absolutely needs to run seven days a week because it provides an intervention, particularly to elderly people, that keeps them from an acute presentation of one kind or another. We need to see more of that and the utilisation of primary care for both hospital avoidance and other treatments. That needs to be done and understood on a seven-day-a-week basis. That is what all of our workforce agreements have enabled us to imagine and that is now what must be delivered.

In respect of cancer and PET scans more broadly, we have a review of the cancer programme and cancer strategy next year, which is really important. This issue comes up repeatedly and I would like to expedite that particular analysis towards the front of that review. I do not want to be having a 2030 conversation; I want to be having a 2026 conversation in relation to the planning for that. It is also important to say that, at the same time, we want to move cancer treatment as close to home as possible. Perhaps we will get to a great day where cancer treatment is delivered in the home in rural Ireland. When that begins to happen, we will know that we are delivering services in an genuinely Sláintecare way.