Ollie Crowe (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, to the House. She is a fellow Galwegian who is often in the House and does great work for us. The issue I want to raise is the two new orthopaedic operating theatres in Merlin Park Hospital in Galway, which the Minister of State will be aware cost €10.5 million. They opened last June and were due to be fully operational shortly thereafter. It is now five years since surgical appointments had to be cancelled when a leaky roof at Merlin Park led to the closure of the old facilities there. In that time span, naturally, a considerable back log has built up. Unfortunately, there are now long waiting lists. It was expected that the new operating theatres in Galway would have a significant impact on reducing waiting times for orthopaedic surgery in the west. Unfortunately, five months after these theatres opened, they remain non-operational.

As the Minister of State will be aware, I have been contacted by constituents and by patients who have been waiting years for operations. Despite these theatres having opened, they do not seem to be any closer than they were prior to this multi-million euro investment in facilities. There are very harrowing stories. One woman needed a hip replacement over five years ago. She had an MRI scan carried out over three years ago and met with a specialist 18 months ago. She met with the surgeon due to do the operation in the first quarter of this year. The situation is so bad that she has to sleep in a recliner downstairs in her house and she has gone from having an active life with various activities to being someone who rarely gets out of the house.I spoke to her again last week. She is struggling to go to mass and that is unacceptable. The reality is that she has no timeframe and as the Minister of State will be aware, the uncertainty is difficult. That is just one example among thousands of people in Galway West, Galway East and across the west of Ireland. The reality is that the longer this situation drags on, the more people are being added to the waiting list and the bigger the backlog is becoming. We must address this with urgency. These theatres must become fully operational. This is something that will make an enormous difference to the quality of life of people in Galway city and beyond, as the Minister of State is aware. Whatever measures are required to be implemented to resolve this need to be taken immediately.