Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This issue concerns the second gynaecology surgical theatre at Cork University Maternity Hospital, CUMH. It is a fact that, since the CUMH opened in 2007, that theatre has remained closed. Last January, Deputy Ó Laoghaire, others and I attended a briefing from Professor John Higgins, the clinical director of the maternity directorate in the South/South West hospital group. He provided an update on the positive and significant progress that had been made in dealing with what had been a lengthy gynaecology outpatient waiting list at CUMH. It was as long as 4,700 women in April 2017, but the latest parliamentary reply that I received from the Minister, which issued just last week, puts the outpatient waiting list at 1,854. That is a reduction of almost 3,000. I acknowledge the work of everyone involved in the maternity directorate in achieving that. The directorate at CUMH also covers University Hospital Kerry, University Hospital Waterford and South Tipperary General Hospital. The initiatives that it has taken to eat into the backlog have proven successful. Many of the consultant gynaecologists at the hospital commenced additional gynaecology outpatient clinics out of hours; a weekly outreach outpatients' clinic was held in the Mallow primary healthcare centre; the number of new patients seen at all clinics was increased; additional daily gynaecology clinics were set up from July 2018; and, in January of this year, a comprehensive drive to see an additional 500 outpatients at out-of-hours clinics was planned. To my knowledge, the consultants achieved that, which contributed to the reduction. While I welcome all of these initiatives, I do not want women simply being transferred from the outpatient list to the inpatient and surgery waiting lists. This concern is shared by the clinicians.

The second operating theatre has lain idle since 2007.

In recent times, however, CUMH has rented theatre space in the Mater Private Hospital in Cork. While I do not have any ideological hang-up about the use of spare capacity in the private system, I believe the operating theatre that is lying idle in the CUMH building should be put into use in the first instance. I understand that the Minister, Deputy Harris, signed off on the gynaecology business case, which involved initiatives for dealing with the outpatient waiting lists, in 2017. We need the funding and the staffing to be provided in order that the second theatre can be opened without any further delay. I am not a medic and nor is the Minister of State, but both of us are well aware of the impact of this delay on the quality of life of many women who are on the waiting list for inpatient and day case surgery procedures. Some of them are continuing to wait long periods. The overall number of women on the waiting list is 421, some 12 of whom have been waiting for over two years, a further 23 of whom have been waiting for between 18 and 24 months and a further 31 of whom have been waiting for between 12 and 18 months. This needs to be dealt with. I hope the Minister of State has some positive news for the women of the region.

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