Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is a very serious staffing crisis in the oncology department of University Hospital Limerick as a result of it having lost 30 nurses, who have not been replaced despite the fact the embargo is not supposed to be operable at UHL anymore. The consequences of this are very serious. It means gravely ill patients have to wait for unconscionable periods of time for essential treatments such as chemotherapy. I have been approached by families of people who have been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer who have not managed to get chemotherapy yet after six weeks' delay. Sometimes when people get to the end of the waiting period, the date is postponed again. The same thing applies to people who are waiting for scans to ascertain whether their cancer is in remission. I appreciate the huge investment this Government has made in University Hospital Limerick, but this is a very serious crisis affecting some very vulnerable people and I want to know what the Government's proposals are to alleviate the situation.

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