Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I second the motion and thank the Minister for coming to the House to take it. I have written to the Minister about this issue and I have had a response from the Department. Others colleagues in this House and in the other one have also written to the Minister about this issue.

The bottom line is that I have met pre-transplant and post-transplant patients and what is being asked of them is extremely unfair. I know that there are problems with filling this vacancy. I am referring specifically to the pancreas side of services. Of course, the Minister cannot magic up a surgeon who will take the job. Some points set out in the reply the Minister gave to Senator Colm Burke's Commencement matter last week are completely incorrect. It is stated in the reply that Beaumont Hospital wrote to all the patients in May but it did not. It did not write to the pancreas transplant patients. It stated that a joint assessment clinic for the eight patients who are waiting for a transplant will be held on 24 July but those patients know nothing about that. It also stated that they would not have to go to accident and emergency - they know nothing about that - and that they would go to the co-ordinators. That is not happening. I hope now the Minister has come to the House that those points can be clarified.

I and others have met these patients and I know the Minster wants to resolve this issue. I am raising this issue on a humanitarian basis, not on a political basis. The fact of the matter is that these people should not be going to an accident and emergency department. The Minister will probably give a response to the motion about kidney and pancreas transplants but I would like him to focus specifically on the pancreas side and the replacement of Professor David Hickey. I am interested, first and foremost, to the hear the Minister's response. What we are looking for is very clear. If we cannot provide the service here, let us pay for it to be done abroad for these patients. The National Treatment Purchase Fund was in place to provide for that. Let us make sure that these patients have access to the co-ordinators. I am very tight on time and I am more interested to hear what the Minister has to say, so I will leave it at that. He knows what the situation is. This is a life and death situation and it has to be sorted.