Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is very welcome to the House. I am delighted she is taking this Commencement matter because I know her commitment to health issues and the work she has done over recent years, particularly since becoming Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and older people. This is a very important issue. This month is cardiovascular month. It is a month when people are reminded to mind their cardiovascular health. Unfortunately, too many people in this country die and suffer serious illness as a result of issues to do with cardiovascular health. This month, therefore, is an opportune time for us, as a nation, to look at what we are doing in this area.

I have always believed that screening is very useful and very important and saves countless lives. However, one never really sees the headlines about the lives that are saved because people just get on with it. That means the programme is achieving what it is meant to achieve. Of course, we have had scandals as a result of screening not working, but they have been a minority of cases. Overall, screening works, and one would like to see a lot more screening, particularly when it comes to the early detection of cardiovascular health issues. It would be very useful if we had a national screening programme in this area. We need an overall national cardiovascular strategy anyway, not just from a screening point of view, even though screening is critical. From an educational perspective, a personal health perspective and a fitness perspective, there are a myriad of areas that would tie into a national strategy to reduce the number of people who suffer death, bereavement and long-term illness as a result of this issue.

The Minister of State will be aware that HIQA carried out a report into this area. It was asked by the Government to do so. It has recommended that TAVI, which is a medical intervention system, be used as an alternative to SAVR. It would reduce the number of bed nights people would require. While it is being used at the moment as an alternative in some cases to open-heart surgery, HIQA believes it should be rolled out in a much more focused way and to a much greater number of patients. That HIQA report is there and, like many reports, I do not want to see it just gaining dust on a shelf. HIQA did the report, it did good work on it and, as such, the report should be implemented. That would be another element and another cog to a national strategy. A national strategy on cardiovascular health should include education, awareness, health promotion and proper dietary awareness. It should also include the roll-out of a national screening programme to people a lot younger than those who may benefit from it at the moment. Such a strategy should look at full implementation of the HIQA report, which was carried out some time ago.

I know the Minister of State will join me in wishing the people who work in this area all the very best and thanking them for the work they do daily, particularly with September being the month when we acknowledge, appreciate and get a better understanding of our own cardiovascular health.