asked the Minister for Health if he will make a grant available to health boards to assist them to finance home kidney dialysis units.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Home Kidney Units.
12.
Seven such units have been provided out of public funds and are in use and arrangements are being made for the supply of additional units.
It has been found convenient, for administrative and technical reasons, to have these machines supplied through Jervis Street Hospital, Dublin.
Is the Minister aware that a young man in County Cork has been awaiting such a unit for the past three months and that the Southern Health Board are very reluctant to supply it despite numerous representations made to them?
I am not so aware. If the Deputy wants to give me the case personally I will find out whether there is any administrative reason for this because we are extending the number of these machines. They cost £1,800 and the running costs are £1,200. So, it is an extremely expensive but desirable service.
That means that there is £3,000 involved. The MidWestern Regional Board——
Has the Deputy a question?
I am putting the question to the Minister for Health, is he aware that we have no machine and cannot get and will not be allowed to get from his Department one of these kidney units and that we had patients who at their own expense had to come to Dublin twice weekly to get the kidney treatment? For the sake of £3,000 for one of these units, is the Minister not prepared to save a man's life? A man has died because of the expense involved in coming to Dublin for kidney treatment. Will the Minister reconsider the whole situation and provide each health board not alone with a unit but with the technical appliances that go with it and the men who go with it in order that human life can be saved? That has not been done.
I have indicated to the Deputy that we propose to provide 20 machines per annum for the next five years. Who will operate the machines it would be impossible for me to tell the Deputy. It depends on the technical skills in the area. Naturally, every effort will be made to localise the technical direction of these machines.
Anybody will operate them if you pay them. Our problem is that we have not got sufficient funds to pay the man who will operate the machine and the Minister will not——
We cannot have a debate.
The Minister will not allow us to engage this man, and he knows that.
The Deputy is asking me too complicated a question to answer. I cannot keep everything in my head. The question is whether in a particular area a person can be employed specifically for this purpose and whether he would have a full work load. I cannot answer the questions. If the Deputy will communicate with me I will tell him what the position is, when a machine goes to Limerick, who will operate it and how it will be operated. The Deputy can ask me the questions.
And when the machine will go to Limerick. We have applied for a machine already and have been turned down.