Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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Moving on, another area that I want to touch on is the use of operating theatres in hospitals. I know of a number of HSE hospitals where the use of theatres is limited. There is one hospital where patients are not allowed into theatre after 4 p.m. A consultant in the north-west region advised me that she had been told that if a patient is not in theatre by 4 p.m., that is it, and the operation has to be cancelled. Has that issue been looked at? If we have a situation where a theatre is closed from 4 p.m. right through until 8 a.m. the following morning, that is not a good use of the space.

I want to raise another issue in relation to operating theatres. I am aware that some private hospitals are now using theatre assistants, in other words, people who are specifically trained up to provide back-up support in theatres. Is the HSE going to look at that with a view to ensuring that we have an adequate number of staff to man our operating theatres?