Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Sa cead áit, ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas as ucht an fáilte. I thank the Cathaoirleach very much for his welcome and his very generous and kind words and I thank Senator Byrne for raising this important issue, which I am replying to on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris.

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on this matter and to ease the Senator's concerns about blood testing facilities for general practitioners at University Hospital Limerick, or UHL. I am pleased to inform the Senator that UHL provides blood testing facilities for GPs on a Monday to Friday basis. The UHL pathology department's laboratories have always accepted and tested GP bloods and, of course, other specimens, on week days. Defined drop off and delivery times for specimens are in place to provide a streamlined process and to allow for the timely processing and testing of patient samples. Specimen acceptance criteria times are Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Fridays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The defined specimen drop off and delivery times allow UHL laboratory staff sufficient time to process specimens according to their priority. The House will no doubt appreciate that all internal acute hospital clinical specimens are essentially prioritised due to the nature of acutely ill patients. GP and primary care specimens are then processed, within acceptable timeframes, so as to prevent any compromise of test results due to any testing delays.

I acknowledge that the Senator may be concerned about the status of urgent specimens required by GPS but I have been assured by UHL that all urgent and critical GP specimens are accepted by UHL laboratories outside routine working hours. However, in such circumstances, it is necessary for the referring clinicians to make contact with laboratory staff prior to the delivery of the specimen. In addition to the blood testing facilities operating on a Monday to Friday basis, I have been informed that Shannondoc provides out of hours medical care to patients throughout the mid-west region, and as such, has blood testing facilities. The Shannondoc GP courier specimen collection service recently extended its service from three to four days. The service, which previously operated on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, has now been extended to include Mondays. While this extension of operating hours has obviously resulted in a corresponding increase of some 20% to 30% in the number of GP specimens received by the UHL laboratories, I am delighted that UHL has been in a position to respond to this increase in demand.

It is a fact that any further extension of services at UHL laboratories will increase the financial demands on the hospital in terms of staff costs, test reagents, kits and consumables. It is important, therefore, that any proposal to increase service provision should be evaluated in light of the priorities of UHL and the provision of the best service to patients. Finally, I note the very considerable investment in UHL in recent years. As the Senator noted, it was only last week that the Minister, Deputy Harris, officially opened its new state-of-the-art emergency department which represents a major landmark in the provision of patient services in the mid-west.