Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

While I respect the fact that the Minister of State is here to take the Topical Issue, I am disappointed that the Minister could not see fit to come to the House to deal with this matter. The purpose of the Topical Issue debate is for Ministers to make themselves available to deal with the issues because they are important for the constituencies Members represent.

In January 2016, the Minister of State, Deputy McHugh, announced that the second breast surgeon for Letterkenny was approved and that recruitment would start straight away. We now know this was an empty pre-election promise because we have seen nothing happen since then. As has been said, almost a year and a half later we have seen no action. While this goes on, the number of referrals continues to grow. There is an average of 1,950 referrals to the breast clinic in Letterkenny every year that are dealt with a single surgeon who does Trojan work and is so passionate about looking after the patients he sees and making sure the service in Letterkenny is maintained. I know it is hard for people in Dublin to understand but it is a four-and-a-half-hour trip from Inishowen to Galway to attend the clinics there. As these are patients who are ill or are worried that they might be ill and might receive a diagnosis of cancer, it is vitally important that this service in Letterkenny continues to grow. The way to do that is to appoint the second breast surgeon, which would allow the waiting lists to be shortened. I can only think that it is a deliberate policy on the part of the NCCP and the HSE to ensure this appointment does not happen and that the waiting lists continue to grow in order that the demand will be to move the entire service to Galway.

The Minister of State will state in her reply that not enough surgeries take place in Letterkenny to justify two surgeons because that is the response we constantly, get even though the Department has agreed to appoint a second surgeon. I point out to her that were the same figures to be used by the Department and enforced around the rest of the country, approximately one quarter of the breast surgeons nationwide would not be carrying out enough operations. A total of 96 new cancers were identified in Letterkenny in 2015 while the number in 2016 was 89. To my mind, that clearly justifies the need to appoint a second surgeon in Letterkenny. It is not enough to make excuses that there are difficulties around recruitment.

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