Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My understanding was that this debate was about medical infrastructure in general. I am happy, however, to stick to the issue of the MRI in Crumlin, which is the Deputy’s major concern. By sheer coincidence I spent three hours in Crumlin today. I was there officially to turn the sod on the new hybrid cardiac catheterisation laboratory, Cath Lab, that is under construction but I took the opportunity to visit the intensive care unit, ICU, and the emergency department, to meet with the board, senior management and the senior medical and nursing staff and many others.

One of the issues we discussed was the delay for non-urgent MRIs. Urgent cases are prioritised. If an MRI is required in an emergency it is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in Temple Street Children’s Hospital which is the neurology centre. As the hospitals will be merged and brought together on one site they work together very well and patients are taken to Temple Street if they need an urgent MRI out of hours. The number of MRI scans has gone up from approximately 1,600 a year or two ago to 2,000. This is not a case of cutbacks but of rising demand. That is a feature of our health service. The hospital does do a list every second Saturday to try to deal with the delay.

There are two rate limiting factors. One, which the Deputy identified, is that the MRI scanner is used for only 37 hours a week. We would like that to move to an 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. service on weekdays at the very least. That is provided for in the Haddington Road agreement. It would require staff, overtime and so on. The board is working with the hospital group on a solution to extend the hours so more work can be done.

The second rate limiting factor relates to the need for anaesthetists because young children cannot stay still in the tunnel for long, they get very afraid because of the claustrophobic effect and the noise and need to be sedated or anaesthetised. There is a shortage of anaesthetists in Ireland as in most countries. It is difficult to recruit them. The hospital will be advertising for two additional anaesthesiologists very soon. I hope there will be applicants. Once those posts are in place the hospital can decide how best to use their time.

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