Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Connolly for raising this very serious issue. Saolta University Health Care Group has advised that on 4 September, a leak developed in the roof of a building in Merlin Park University Hospital that houses the hospital’s two orthopaedic theatres. Hospital management temporarily suspended operations for a week to allow the University Hospital Galway building and maintenance unit to make repairs. A second leak was noted on 13 September, however, and the Saolta group advises that a multidisciplinary team consisting of members of the hospital’s management and infection control teams, as well as the HSE, immediately decided in the interest of patient safety to suspend operations in the two theatres. This was done to allow a full assessment of the infrastructural damage and the development of a plan for repairs. As a result, elective orthopaedic surgeries are now being deferred at Merlin Park. Hospital management has contacted patients individually to apologise and provide assurances that their treatment will be rescheduled. It should he noted, however, that no emergency patients have been affected. I am very conscious of the upset and inconvenience that this closure is causing for both patients and their families while the theatres remain closed.

Saolta and the University Hospital Galway management team have engaged an external engineering firm to carry out a full assessment of the damage and to provide a timeframe for the completion of repairs. They are also exploring a range of potential interim solutions including the use of modular theatres, assessing the scope to utilise other theatre capacity in University Hospital Galway and potential outsourcing of some services to the private hospital sector. Saolta and the University Hospital Galway management team have both been in regular contact with the Department of Health to provide updates on the situation at Merlin Park hospital. The Department has requested that the Saolta group formulate and implement a contingency plan to address this incident and the Minister for Health is due to have a meeting with local management on this issue next week.

I assure Members that reducing waiting times for the longest-waiting patients is one of the Government’s key priorities. Consequently, budget 2017 allocated €20 million to the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, rising to €55 million in 2018. In order to reduce the numbers of long-waiting patients, the HSE, working closely with the NTPF, is currently implementing waiting list action plans for 2017. The inpatient and day-case waiting list action plan is being delivered through a combination of normal hospital activity and in-sourcing and outsourcing waiting list initiatives under the NTPF funding. The NTPF has advised that under its waiting list initiatives, to date approximately 6,000 patients have been authorised for treatment in private hospitals and nearly 3,000 have been authorised for treatment in public hospitals. Of these patients, more than 3,000 have accepted an offer of treatment and some 1,500 have already been treated. Under the NTPF in-sourcing initiative, there has been a particular focus on patients needing orthopaedic procedures and engagement is ongoing with the NTPF with regard to Merlin Park hospital. I will revert to the Deputy on some of the other issues after her response.

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