Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to ask the Minister about two different areas. One is the screening services, and I thank him for the update on that, and the second is the contract with private hospitals.

The screening services obviously had to be closed down. We screen approximately 3,000 women and men a day. Closing them for three months has meant that 170,000 screenings, or thereabouts, have not happened. We all back the screening services. We know early detection saves lives, therefore, unfortunately delayed detection can cost lives. Many doctors believe they can open now. I will give the example of cervical screening. In the past three months 70,000 women will not have been screened. GPs and scientists are contacting me saying that GPs are ready, that social distancing measures are in place and they can take tests now. The labs are saying they can do the tests, and the colposcopists and specialist are saying they can take referrals from the labs results now. When are we going to have a date? Doctors are anxious about this. I want to read out what one GP wrote to me this week. The GP stated that we have a tentative date for opening of hairdressers and pubs, but not for cancer screening, and that it is alarming and extremely concerning. I welcome the Minister's update today and that he is engaging with the screening services, but what the clinicians are asking for is a date. When are we going to have a date when they can get back to providing this lifesaving service?

The second question is about the contract with the private hospitals. As the Minister will be aware, I was fully in favour of the initial decision, but not of the ongoing use of it. I do not think it worked well, and welcome the decision to end the contract. I hope we will have some replacement capacity put in place for public patients but I do not understand why it is being run through June.

We will still pay more than €115 million. My understanding is that the reduced capacity stemming from this effort to do both at the same time will result in approximately 10,000 fewer surgeries under general anaesthetic - serious surgeries - for public and private patients. It was also revealed at the committee that no effort was made to ask the private hospitals whether they would consider ending the contract sooner. Why was no effort made to end it sooner such that we could try to get patients the care they need more quickly?

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