Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Indeed, and I hope I will be able to emphasise how important and how seriously the Government, including the Minister, Deputy Harris, and the HSE are taking this issue.

The House will be aware that last year, in line with a commitment in the programme for a partnership Government, an independent review of the need for a second cath lab at University Hospital Waterford was undertaken by Dr. Neil Herity. The review concluded very firmly that the needs of the effective catchment population could be accommodated from a single cath lab. However, investment was recommended to enhance cardiac services at the hospital and to provide an additional eight hours of cath lab activity per week to address waiting times and provide improved access for patients. At the time of the publication of the report, the Minister committed to providing the additional resources to University Hospital Waterford as recommended. I am pleased to confirm, therefore, that implementation of the recommendations of the Herity report has been identified as a priority action in the HSE national service plan 2017. To this end, an additional €500,000 has been allocated to the hospital for the coming year. The Minister has also committed to a further review after these extra investments have been put in place.

Following his visit to the hospital last November, the Minister asked the HSE and the south-south west hospital group to address the waiting lists for cardiology procedures at the hospital as a priority. I am delighted to report that very significant progress has been made in recent weeks. Indeed, waiting list data compiled and published by the National Treatment Purchase Fund last week shows that the cardiology inpatient and day-case procedure waiting list at the hospital has been reduced by almost 20% since the end of November while the number of persons waiting longer than a year has been reduced by some 67%.

While the Minster acknowledged warmly the collective efforts of all concerned to tackle the issue, he believes it is very important that this focus on the cardiology waiting list continues in 2017. To this end, he has been assured by the HSE that the hospital group has a robust plan in place to address the remaining backlog which involves access to cath lab capacity across the region. I am advised by the HSE that patients currently waiting over 12 months will have their procedures completed in the first eight weeks of 2017 and that patients waiting three to 12 months will have their procedures completed by June 2017. I know the Deputies will welcome that news. The House will be aware that budget 2017 made specific provision for those patients waiting longest for treatment within the health service. In this context, the Minister is considering a national cardiology waiting list initiative to address cardiology waiting lists across the country. A range of measures are envisaged including sharing of facilities and resources among public hospitals, the use of private facilities and the deployment of a mobile cath lab, including in Waterford, to augment the current plan which has been drawn up by the south-south west hospital group to address the waiting list backlog.

Further details of this proposed initiative will be made available in the coming weeks. I do not doubt that Deputies will be glad to know that as soon as those details are available they will be made aware of them.

See this speech in context