Michael Harty (Clare, Independent)
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We have had several meetings about workforce planning. An issue that was raised was the creation of panels for appointments.

There is a problem in respect of those panels. I understand that those panels will be concluded next year and that a new panel system will be drawn up. On that issue, I am aware of a speech and language therapist in a hospital who has been approved to move to a different hospital but cannot because the recruitment process for the position she holds is frozen, not funded, not approved or whatever is the term. There is an issue in respect of panels and, in particular, the geography associated with panels. One may be a specialist in the south of Ireland and when a vacancy arises one is offered a position in the North of the country, which is not practical for one to take up. There seems to be a problem in respect of the constituent parts of panels and the way people are offered jobs from those panels. The Minister might clarify that when replying.

Deputy Margaret Murphy-O'Mahony raised the issue of GP vacancies. The particular problem that arises when somebody retires is the way that post is filled. I want to make a practical suggestion to the Minister. The panel system for interviewing for GPs is out of date. The marking system might be out of date also because when somebody retires, it is important to have local information on the way that GP panel is filled. Having the retired GP who has just vacated the position as part of that panel is important because he or she may well have been head-hunting for somebody to come onto that list before he or she retires and would have a good deal of local knowledge about who would be the most appropriate person to take on the list. It is often the case that a list is drawn up, the system of offering it to the first, second or third person is gone through and by the time the person who wants the job or could take it is reached, he or she has moved on. The marking system is disconnected from the practical availability of GPs on the ground because the longer a panel is unfilled, the less chance we have of getting somebody from that existing panel. The input of the retiring GP or much more local input in the interview process would speed up the filling of that position.

The MRI scanner in University Hospital Limerick, UHL, is long overdue but very welcome. I am disappointed that it will operate only from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. The MRI scanner is essential to reducing the number of people waiting for admission to the hospital and confining its use from Monday to Friday does not make the best use of it. It should operate for longer hours during the week but it also should function at weekends to clear the backlog of MRI scans, not only for patients in casualty but also patients on waiting lists. Consultants in the mid-west are now advising public patients to get their scans done privately because they will not get them done publicly in a timely manner. It is important that the Minister should consider the opening hours for that scanner.

Mr. Reid referred earlier to theatres in Ennis hospital. It is essential that the theatres in the hospital be upgraded. Two new modular theatres are required to allow inpatient day-care procedures to be carried out. That would take a lot of pressure off UL and allow ear, nose and throat surgery in particular, about which we have spoken previously, to be developed in Ennis hospital in the way ophthalmology services have been developed in Nenagh. It would be critical infrastructure to put in place to solve the problems all of us have mentioned earlier in respect of UHL. The Minister might comment on using our model 2 hospitals to the maximum advantage.

Mr. Reid also mentioned hospital avoidance. It is critical that we expand our community intervention team, CIT, services to allow frail elderly people remain in their homes. CIT services are essential for that. There is an axis between CIT GPs and public health nurses.

If they do not exist within the community, people will end up in accident and emergency services unnecessarily when they could be managed at home.

We mentioned previously that it is essential to expand community diagnostics. That is one of the pillars of the winter plan for the mid-west but I am not aware how GPs or others access those community diagnostics because information is not available on that.

On the timeline for scheduled care hospitals, site selection will happen next year. In terms of the process, it will then have to go to design, procurement, tendering, building and commissioning. What is the timeline for an elective hospital to take in patients? Is the children's hospital consuming funds that should be going to all of those other services? The Minister might give us a timeline for that in respect of elective hospitals.

My last question relates to ophthalmology services in the mid-west. The waiting time from seeing the consultant to having surgery is reduced but the waiting time for an initial visit, even though one may have a diagnosis of a cataract from an optician, needs to be removed. One presents with the diagnosis. A diagnosis process is not necessary but getting to that first visit is still taking two to three years in the mid-west. I accept the time may be shorter after one has been seen but the time between being referred and being seen is still two to three years. That is my first tranche of questions for the Minister.