Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

The Minister, in reply to Deputy Reilly, said that there were five scoliosis surgery patients appointments rescheduled. In the earlier part of her reply she said, basically, that the private hospital system could not do this operation and, therefore, they were all rescheduled in public hospitals. I believe that is what the Minister said, in any event. That puts a hospital such as Crumlin at an unfair funding disadvantage to other types of acute hospitals which can farm out much of their waiting lists to the NTPF. Obviously, Crumlin cannot in these types of situations. Does that not make an argument to the effect that Crumlin should be treated differently in terms of funding, since it does not have the outlet that other hospitals have?

On the question that was grouped with this one, from my colleague, Deputy Michael D. Higgins, specifically about sickle cell disease, again, that is something that Crumlin has taken on as an extra, without any funding stream. Should it have refused to deal with sickle cell cases on the grounds that it did not have the money? What is a hospital such as Crumlin supposed to do in those circumstances?

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