Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

The Western Health Board made a decision yesterday to defer the opening of an orthopaedic unit for Mayo General Hospital. This unit has cost more than €10 million, interviews were held for over 70 jobs, advertisements were placed and professional people promised jobs have moved to Castlebar in anticipation of the opening of the unit in July.

The current position is that a patient who enters Mayo General Hospital for orthopaedic attention is put on a waiting list, supposedly for Galway. However, the patient is never called. This is a scandal. It is outrageous that people are told they are being put on a waiting list but, at the same time, they are never called for orthopaedic attention.