Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the serious issue of the review of gynaecology services in Letterkenny University Hospital where women experienced delayed diagnosis. Obviously, as a result of that, in some cases they did not get the treatment they should have as soon as possible.

I want to express my deep sorrow to any of the women affected and also to any of their families and friends who have faced an adverse outcome because of this.

I am at a little bit of a disadvantage in answering the question in that I have not been briefed about this recently or in a very long time. I do not want to give an answer on a sensitive matter for it to turn out to be wrong. As the Deputy said, the Saolta group is in charge of the hospitals in the west and Donegal and it carried out individual reports into the different cases. I understand from what the Deputy said that some women and families are unhappy with the individual reports they received.

I am not able to answer what actions have been taken in the past two months as I am just not up to date on this. There is a meeting of the Cabinet subcommittee on health this afternoon. I will have a chance to see the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, then and I will let him know the Deputy raised this serious matter. I am sure he will want to respond to the Deputy directly.

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