John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Given its proximity to the accident and emergency unit, I have no doubt the new scanner provides improved access. There is no question about that. However, the issue is that the current waiting time for a CT scan in University Hospital Waterford is still six months. I already made the point that 16,500 examinations were carried out in 2014 and patients suspected of having heart disease or other anomalies were told there was at least a six month waiting list for scans. I understand the annual service contract for the older machinery remains in place and that it is used during scheduled preventative maintenance and unscheduled down time of the new unit. We have two scanners in perfect working order and we have more than 16,5000 examinations being carried out in the hospital but there is still an average waiting time of six months for access to a scan. I imagine that a small cost would provide a small staff that would be able to reduce the waiting time significantly to two or three months for patients waiting for a CT scan.

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