Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I regret very much that the Minister saw fit to go away for St Patrick's day one week in advance and that she is not here to answer questions. One part of my question concerns what action the Minister took and it appears she took no action whatsoever. I have number of questions for the Minister of State, Deputy Andrews, and his colleagues arising from his response. Knowing that there are more than 20,000 outstanding X-rays that have not yet been examined by radiologists, how can he say that this is of low concern, if that is the phrase he used? How can this be so? We do not know what is in the 20,000 outstanding X-rays. We know that one patient has died already and another has had a delayed diagnosis. The Taoiseach gave a similar reply this morning and I was astonished at the suggestion that with 20,000 outstanding X-rays, we can blandly say it is acceptable to take time over this because there is probably no issue for other patients. We do not know that. I ask the Minister of State to address this so that the rest of the X-rays are examined as quickly as possible.

Regarding the Minister's knowledge of the issue, on "Morning Ireland" Professor Conlon said:

I explained to the Minister and I explained to the HSE the issue we had with radiology. I also explained to her that we were going to deal with it and I explained to her that we were going to deal with it by bringing extra consultants in and that we were going to clear this backlog as fast as is humanly possible.

Does that not indicate there was a considerable amount of information given to the Minister at that time in December? Does the Minister of State know if the Minister for Health and Children was told of the numbers involved? We know that Professor Conlon knew the numbers at that stage. Did the Minister for Health and Children ask to be kept informed of progress on the issue? The statement by HIQA suggests it was told the backlog would be removed by the end of March. Does the Minister know why this did not happen? The HIQA statement suggests this would happen by March.

Of the X-rays not reviewed, how many were private patients and how many were public patients? Was each X-ray assigned a number? The Minister indicated they may have been assigned a radiologist but the radiologist never examined the X-rays. Can the Minister of State clarify this point?

The main point I am concerned about is that the Minister was given substantial information in December. The CEO had the full information on the number, over 57,000 outstanding. Can the Minister of State provide any reassurance to the public why the Minister for Health and Children did not act on this information or take responsibility? It is very hard to have confidence in the Minister for Health and Children in the context of all the information she had regarding previous incidents of misdiagnosis and the recommendations in the public domain. When she was given this information about a large publicly funded hospital she appears to have totally ignored it and is not in the Chamber to answer questions. These issues are extremely serious for patient confidence in the health services. There remain many outstanding questions and I hope the Minister of State can answer them.

See this speech in context