Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I have seen the reply the Minister sent to my colleague, Deputy Stanley, on 6 June and I note his reply today as well. Both responses invite more questions than they answer. In the response on 6 June, the Minister speaks of "informal catchment areas", issues with the areas that are "typically cyclical" and in referring to hospitals, he referred "to what they view" as their catchment areas. In the 6 June reply, the Minister's opening line states, "any individual hospital often has a number of 'catchment areas' reflecting the different geographic areas" depending on the procedure being sought or the particular referral type.

There is a strange situation here and it is vague and unclear. Are there hospital catchment areas officially recognised by the HSE or are there not? It must come down to simple questions. If there are, can we have a map of these catchment areas that apply across the network of acute hospital sites throughout the country. In the particular instance that gave rise to the question in the first place, and while I welcome the address, as the Minister has indicated, it was where a patient was unable to secure the procedure in the hospital within his area of domicile. He sought access to St. Vincent's Hospital in Dublin, which specialises in the procedure, but was told it would not look after him because he did not live within the catchment area.

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