Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Daly, to the House and congratulate him formally on his appointment yesterday. I am delighted for him and wish him the best of luck for the future.

I raise this matter to call on University Hospital Limerick to provide access for general practitioners to the blood clinic over five days a week. Currently, there is access only on four days a week, namely, Monday to Thursday, but I have heard from a number of general practitioners that this is causing a problem. Where a patient presents in a practice on a Monday to Thursday morning, bloods are taken and the results are back in the afternoon. The doctor will then know whether the patient needs to be sent to the hospital. On a Friday, however, that access to the blood clinic is not available to general practitioners. If a patient attends on a Friday, there is no way to check the bloods for various issues, including anaemia. As such, there is no choice but to send the patient to the accident and emergency department.

There is a chronic situation in University Hospital Limerick. The Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, was in Limerick recently to open the new accident and emergency department, which was very welcome. It was great to see it. While there were very few people on trolleys that day, what is happening now is that people are being sent in on a Friday because GPs cannot check their bloods. As such, some people are being sent unnecessarily and taking up places which should go to those who really need them. Some of the time, these people may simply have been feeling tired and have no other issues. Until that is checked, however, they have to sit in the accident and emergency department, taking up time from those with more serious illnesses. I am asking for the Department to intervene to see if the blood clinic can open on a Monday to Friday basis.