Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

The professionals in this area stated in the context of the budget that radiotherapy services are operating significantly below capacity due to under-resourcing. They went on to state that our healthcare staff do everything they can to minimise the impacts on care for patients but it is simply not possible to provide optimal care in these conditions.

Sixteen of 24 working days last month were affected by unscheduled downtime. Machines are breaking down because they are too old, putting stress on patients and staff. Some €23 million per year is being spent on outsourcing to the private sector because of machines breaking down and not being replaced, and because of the lack of a national replacement programme. As I said, doctors who should be providing services and care to patients are instead, in their own words, coming to the Minister, the Government and Departments begging for money, resources and so on to replace the machines they need to provide the care to save lives. The Minister needs to respond to the specific request to have a national programme for the replacement of these machines and to have the staff and infrastructure necessary to deliver it.

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