Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. It raises an important issue in the context of having sufficient manpower to deal with the issue. Given the outpatient surgical waiting lists and so forth, is the issue whether an adequate number of consultants are appointed in this area? Is that something that must be addressed in conjunction with the issue of access to theatre and post-theatre recovery and intensive care beds? Perhaps this could usefully be pursued by the Minister with the HSE in the context of its service plan for 2015.

The common denominator in respect of the cases mentioned is Mr. Kiely in Crumlin hospital. He has indicated a willingness to regionalise his service delivery. In other words, he has communicated with HSE South and his colleagues in Cork that he is prepared to deliver this service in Cork. Obviously, we are more familiar with demand in Cork for the service, but would this help? If there is a logjam in access to theatre facilities in Crumlin, could regionalisation of the service be a way of dealing with it? Mr. Kiely is prepared to travel, so it does not mean we must duplicate manpower. There are two issues here: regionalisation of the service and the adequacy of consultant manpower to deliver the service.

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