Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 6 Jun 1996

Vol. 466 No. 5

Written Answers. - Delays in Orthopaedic Operations.

Séamus Hughes

Question:

13 Mr. Hughes asked the Minister for Health the reason for substantial delays in carrying out elective orthopaedic operations in Merlin Park Hospital, Galway; and the action, if any, he proposes to take to resolve an ongoing dispute between the management of the Western Health Board and anaesthetists. [11690/96]

Minister for Health (Mr. Noonan,

Limerick East): Demand for orthopaedic operations in the Western Health Board regions has grown in recent times due to a variety of reasons including an increasingly elderly population, changing lifestyle patterns resulting in more accident and trauma cases and advances in the specialty itself.

Under the 1995 waiting list initiative I allocated a total of £709,097 to the Western Health Board which included funding for the provision of additional inpatient and outpatient orthopaedic procedures. As a result of this additional funding the board provided an additional 480 inpatient and 1,623 outpatient orthopaedic operations in 1995. This brought the total number of procedures performed in the year to 6,045 made up of 1,034 in-patient procedures and 5,011 outpatient procedures.

The Western Health Board was also allocated £70,000 in 1995 to provide for continuing developments in orthopaedics at Merlin Park Regional Hospital. My Department had allocated £400,000 to the board in 1994 for this development which made provision for two clean air theatres along with the necessary additional staffing. As part of this development the Western Health Board has informed me that a new orthopaedic consultant took up duty in January, bringing the total of orthopaedic consultants to five. I would also like to point out that there is no ongoing dispute between management and the anaesthetists. There is however, a difference of interpretation over entitlement to rest days under the consultant contract and clarification on this issue is being sought by the board from the grievance and dispute committee.