Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have no difficulty with that, as long as I get an answer.

I wish to raise the issue of the closure of two operating theatres in Merlin Park University Hospital in Galway, which is the sister hospital to University Hospital Galway. The two orthopaedic theatres that have closed for a number of weeks happen to have the longest waiting lists and in recent years, a former consultant has referred to the fact that he was dealing with patients from the last century, bearing in mind that we now are in the second decade of the 21st century.

It is bad enough that the two theatres are closed as a result of a leak but none of us can figure out how the leak was not detected before this, as there was an inspection of the building in 2016. Patients have been left completely at a loss and to bring home the acuteness of this issue to the Minister of State, a mother has written to me about her 20 year old son. He has completed three years at college and took one year out to get a full hip replacement at the age of 20. She has no idea when this operation will happen. He is in receipt of disability allowance at present and this woman is at her wits' end. She and her son have discussed it with the consultant, who informed them that he has no idea as to what is happening, is totally frustrated with the system and that communication seems to be totally absent on this matter. We are reliant on bulletins from the local radio station. We know from this that 60 patients - at the very least - are having their procedures cancelled each week.

This is one specific issue that comes on top of a creaking system, as I highlighted earlier today to the Minister for Health. It would be bad enough were we simply dealing with an exceptional situation but I am afraid it is another symptom in a system that is simply not able to cope. This is why I asked earlier for a specific response with regard to the planning for a new hospital.

We seem to go from crisis to crisis in Galway in this regard. I take no pleasure from standing here today to highlight the bad state of the public health services in Galway. I am firm champion of the public health service. I believe in it passionately. I have seen the good and the bad of it. I have had personal experience of the bad side of it with my family, which is ongoing. These problems have been created by Government after Government who have failed utterly to fund the system and failed utterly to hold to account the Health Service Executive, HSE, in respect of what it is doing there.

To go back to specifics, will the Minister of State explain when the theatres closed? Why did they close? When will they re-open? What is happening in the meantime? What is the communication strategy for the patients who are waiting? What numbers of patients are waiting? At the very least this is basic information that should be at the Minister of State's fingertips and if it is not, my question will be to ask why the Health Service Executive has not come forward with all the facts and a plan of action.

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