Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this issue. I appreciate it very much.

A top consultant turned whistleblower at University Hospital Kerry has told the newspaper Kerry's Eyethat the lives of public patients are now at serious risk because of vital scans being delayed. Consultant radiologist Dr. Martin Schranz has said public patients with potentially life-threatening illnesses are facing serious health risks because of delays in assigning them a patient number that will allow them to have a scan at the hospital. He said that when a patient is referred to the hospital for a scan, he or she has to be assigned a number by the clerical staff in the hospital before he or she can be scanned. He said he knows of five patients whose treatments have been delayed in the past five years.

The latest case was in the past five months and involved a cancer patient who was awaiting a scan so he could be operated on in Cork. By the time he had the scan, which was weeks later because he was waiting for the number, he formed a complication, which may or may not have existed beforehand. That is where the delay has occurred. Dr. Schranz said a GP can ring and say he is worried about a patient and that he has only one option, that is, to send the patient to the emergency department. The consultant says he cannot scan the patient because he does not have a number. It could take a couple of weeks or up to three months. He said one never knows when one can get that number. If the patients pay, they get the number the same day but those who cannot afford it do not get the scan. One does not know who is serious and who is not.

The consultant claims GPs are worried enough to ring him but that his back is against the wall. What can he say to the patient? Does he say he cannot scan the patient unless he or she pays, or does he apologise and say he or she must go to the emergency department and wait six or seven hours just to get the scan? Dr. Schranz says this has been going on since the manual system at the hospital was digitalised four years ago. It can take months to get a number, if one gets a number at all, but the average waiting time is about four weeks.

It is a simple matter but it means patients who could have cancer, appendicitis or another urgent or semi-urgent condition are not scanned for weeks or months. Dr. Schranz filled up incident forms that the hospital should take seriously and investigate but he has heard nothing back. He says the delays are seriously impeding him from doing his job. That is not right for patients and it is not right for general practitioners, GPs, who are very frustrated. Dr. Schranz said that a colleague of his in the emergency department cannot understand why their department is being bogged down with these patients. Most of these matters turn out to be normal but potentially they could result in life or death situations.

I will put three questions first to the Minister of State. First, has he or the Department ever been made aware of the issues raised by Dr. Schranz at University Hospital Kerry, UHK? If so, when were they made aware and what action was taken? Second, does the Minister of State accept the claims made by Dr. Schranz and the concerns raised about the delays regarding scans at University Hospital Kerry? Third, is he aware that UHK, through its public relations, PR, consultants, Heneghan PR, categorically stated in writing that the hospital does not accept what Dr. Martin Schranz is stating and has no knowledge of the incidents he alleges? I have a number of other questions that I will ask after the Minister of State has replied.

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