Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last week the Health Service Executive, HSE, made a decision to remove the X-ray room from the planned extension to the accident and emergency department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda. Those plans have been in place for ten years and the X-ray room was costed and included in the tender. Medical professionals have for years been crying out because of the need for a second X-ray room. The only X-ray room at the hospital is beyond full capacity and the equipment in it is ten years old and obsolete. X-ray is a major diagnostic tool for 80% of patients who go through accident and emergency departments. For the HSE to indicate it will go ahead with an extension to the accident and emergency department without an X-ray room is pure madness. It is like building a house without a roof.

Did the Minister for Health or his Department instruct the HSE to remove the X-ray room from the plans that were in situfor ten years? Will the Minister stand over the madness of a myopic mindset evident in senior HSE management that ignores front-line staff who, for years, have cried out for a second X-ray room? Will he instead do his job and instruct the HSE to revert to the original plans, with the inclusion of an X-ray room in the extension to the accident and emergency department? The current position is pure and utter madness.

See this speech in context