Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The organisation of primary PCI centres throughout the country is a national issue - there is no question of that. It relates to how we provide services for the entire population. We have had this debate in respect of other services. We absolutely have to take account of the best evidence available. The best evidence was got from Dr. Herity at the time.

There is a national review of the provision of PCI centres. It is important that we have this national review. I believe that the Herity report should be taken into account; of course it should, because it is an expert report that we already have. That does not rule out further developments in the Waterford area.

It is time for a full national review of primary PCI services and that is being done. Based on the population of the country we can only operate a limited number of PCI services. I put it to Deputy Kelleher, as the health spokesperson of his party, that I believe he recognises that the location of specialist services and access to those services is singularly important. However, it is not feasible, in terms of giving the best service to patients, to have a PCI centre in every county. Certainly, every region needs to have access.

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