John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Bill, essentially, applies to the professions of optometrist and radiographer.

I take this opportunity to raise an issue which is critically worrying in University Hospital Waterford. The former Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, to great fanfare early in the year, officially visited the hospital to launch the €1.75 million new CT scanner and now the scanner, which patient groups state is critical to stroke victims not only in Waterford but in the south-east region, is still lying idle because there are not enough trained radiographers to operate it. It is outrageous.

This scanner was not a significant cost to the Department because it was funded last year through a donation from the Waterford City and County Infirmary Trust. It is state of the art. It is located in the new unit adjacent to the hospital's accident and emergency department, which was the requirement of the radiographers in the hospital at the time. It caters for a population, as I stated, not only for Waterford but for the entire south-east region.

There have been constant delays in getting this machine operational, first, because there was not sufficient support staff and, then, because of a failure of the HSE to train diagnostic staff.

One would not hear of any other European health service not being able to train diagnostic staff to operate such a critical scanner, one which is of paramount importance to thousands of stroke victims across the south east. On several occasions, I have been told by hospital staff that diagnostic training sessions were cancelled because of understaffing at the hospital. Radiographers could not be released for the training sessions because, as I was informed earlier in a telephone conversation with consultants, it would have created a crisis.

It was anticipated that the development of this second CT unit would provide improved overall access for CT diagnostic services. Its location adjacent to the new accident and emergency department at the hospital would have provided more immediate and safer access for critically ill patients, as well as supporting the implementation of stroke protocols for patients presenting every day to the emergency department at the hospital. Patients requiring CT scans are still being brought to the older machine, however, which is completely unacceptable, as has been pointed out by consultants at the hospital. The machine is located two floors away from the accident and emergency department in the basement of the hospital. Extra staff are required to bring patients to the basement in case there are any emergencies or accidents on the way. Last year, a total of 7,014 CT scans were completed at the hospital, meaning a large volume of patient traffic goes through the basement. The former Minister, Deputy James Reilly, saw the location of the older machine in the basement. It would be interesting to hear an explanation from the present Minister as to why there have been so many delays in the provision of the new scanner. Are there clinical issues?

Radiographers at Waterford Regional Hospital have long warned that they cannot work safely with their current staffing numbers. Patients are undergoing urgent MRI scans at private hospitals following referral from the South Tipperary General Hospital due to insufficient capacity at Waterford Regional Hospital. The weekly slot for MRI access for south Tipperary hospital patients was restricted to two sessions a week earlier this year because of the high volume of patients at the emergency department in Waterford Regional Hospital. I know what I am speaking about as my father recently had a stroke and is critically ill. If the Minister speaks to the specialists at Waterford Regional Hospital, they will all say that immediate and quick access to every piece of medical equipment such as a CT scanner is of paramount importance in dealing with stroke victims. Up to 7,000 stroke patients at Waterford Regional Hospital, however, are shuffled down into a basement or to other hospitals. I cannot believe what I heard from the professionals in the hospital yesterday and today about this facility. Government Deputies have gone to great lengths to give assurances to people in the south east, particularly people in Waterford, that there would be no downgrading of services when the hospital was grouped with Cork University Hospital. This is not the case, however. I appeal to the Minister on behalf of stroke victims in the south east to get the Department responsible to get its act together in ensuring this scanner is operating instead of stroke patients having to go down to a basement to an old CT scanner or be transferred to another hospital. It is appalling and unacceptable.

If I had to do so, I would have no problem in criticising the management of the hospital in this Chamber, on local media or to their faces. In fact, they know I am raising this matter in the Dáil this morning. Hundreds of people have a stroke every day. It is important a stroke victim gets access to vital medical care very early on, but this is not happening. I do not understand how expensive equipment could be left idle in a hospital for months on end when we cannot provide diagnostic training to the radiographers to use this scanner. When will this scanner be up and running? This morning I was informed by a consultant at the hospital in a telephone conversation that it may be November but that I should ask the Department of Health for more staff to work the scanner. It is unacceptable that stroke victims from the south east - in Gorey, Tipperary and Wexford, constituencies that I do not represent - will be shuffled in, if possible, for a CT scan in the basement of Waterford Regional Hospital.

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