John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)

I am very happy that a benefactor has stepped forward and has indicated that he or she is prepared to fund Jamie Murphy's operation and I wish Jamie all the best. What struck me about the responses I received about Jamie's case and the recent debate is the use of the word, "emergency" and the definition of emergency. The response I received from the Minister in Jamie's case stated that no child has been denied access to emergency life-saving surgery due to the hospital's financial break-even programme. If this is the case, why did this child need an anonymous donor to fund her operation in London? The family made it clear to me that the consultant made it clear to them the grave necessity of an immediate operation and the dire consequences of her not having that operation immediately. This was an emergency and it was delayed.

In the case of another young girl I refer to a letter from a GP to the consultant in Crumlin. The GP writes that he is aware of the situation with regard to the waiting list and the constraints put on the consultant with regard to doing this surgery. He writes that it is very distressing for her parents and for himself to see this girl with this condition having to wait an inordinate length of time to have the operation. He writes that it is a terrible pity that she has to deteriorate to a huge degree before she can have this essential surgery. He writes that he will be sending a copy of the letter to the HSE and to a TD in the hope of highlighting the problem with regard to the long waiting list. He writes that her family are quite adamant that they do not want to take the place of another equally seriously ill child on the waiting list.

In my opinion, " a huge deterioration" in the case of a teenage girl is an emergency situation.

I refer to another case which came to my attention in the past few weeks. I received a letter from a GP which states:

This lady has asked me to forward details of her situation to your office. She presented in December 2008 with severe scoliosis, spinal curvature. This is progressive and has deteriorated considerably since that date and this is documented by repeated plane X-rays. She has been assessed by the consultant in Crumlin and is on a waiting list for surgery. Prior to surgery if she requires an MRI scan, the earliest this can be done in Crumlin in the public system is early October 2009. Therefore, it will be at least a year before she will have urgent corrective spinal surgery in Crumlin. Her long-term outlook and degree of disfigurement would be greatly improved by the earliest possible surgical intervention. Next year is her leaving certificate so it was hoped originally to have surgery this summer so as not to interrupt her studies. In my opinion, disfigurement for a teenage girl is an emergency.

This morning on TV3 I watched a spokesperson for the HSE make the case that the situation was unacceptable but that it was up to the hospital not the HSE to deal with it. I noted the same attitude and the same approach in the Dáil this morning. This requires leadership. It is unacceptable to pass the buck back to the hospital and to swap responsibility between the Government and the HSE. 8 o'clock

See this speech in context