Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 20 May 1999

Vol. 505 No. 2

Adjournment Debate. - Health Services.

Mrs. T. Ahearn

For many years the health provisions in south Tipperary were in a dismal state. Truthfully, this was due to local disagreement as to whether the new hospital would be located in Cashel or Clonmel. However, in 1997, the Minister for Health, Deputy Michael Noonan, announced State funding of £13.5 million for the provision of an adequate health service in south Tipperary. We thought our problems were over. However, despite the brave decision of the Minister for Health, the provision of facilities is not only slow but incoherent, illogical and wasteful.

St. Joseph's Hospital, Clonmel is already overcrowded. There are long waiting lists for all treat ments. The waiting list for X-rays, however, is completely unnecessary. Following the provision of funds by the Minister, money was allocated for a new X-ray room. The room is ready and contains the most sophisticated equipment. I am sure the public would be outraged if they knew that public money has provided a facility which is little more than a museum. The X-ray room is not being used for the purpose for which it was intended. The room is closed while queues form in hospital corridors for the already insufficient X-ray service. Radiographers are working overtime and are on call every second night.

It seems illogical for a Minister to oversee a service in which excellent facilities cannot be used for want of staff. All that is needed to allow this facility to be put into the service of the people of south Tipperary is the appointment of a radiographer. This modern, up-to-date, fully equipped and badly needed medical resource is lying idle. This is the ultimate in wastefulness and it cannot be tolerated.

A recent report has found that Ireland is in 16th place in the provision of health services. St. Joseph's Hospital provides a perfect example of the failure of our health service. Someone, somewhere must make logical decisions and insist that once technology is provided, it must be used. The public will question once again how we run our affairs. If a private company invested this amount of money in new facilities and new technology, it could not afford to allow them lie idle. How can the Department of Health and Children afford to do so? The health of patients in south Tipperary is being affected. The waiting lists for X-rays are too long. Where they wait in the corridor in full view is a fully equipped modern resource room which cannot be used for the want of staff. How anybody could have agreed to spend money on this facility in the knowledge that staff would not be available to make use of it is beyond me.

The Minister of State should bring to an end immediately this unacceptable situation. The South-Eastern Health Board should not allow it to continue. The Minister of State should at least give us some hope that where facilties are provided they will be used. The facilities in question have been lying idle for five months. This is too long, unfair on patients and constitutes a waste of resources. It is not something that the Minister of State or I could be proud of.

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Mr. Fahey)

The provision of medical services at St. Joseph's Hospital is a matter for the South-Eastern Health Board in the first instance. A major phase 1 capital development is under planning at the hospital to provide for the transfer of surgical services from Our Lady's Hospital, Cashel in line with the south Tipperary hospital agreement. In view of the projected overall increase in activity at St. Joseph's Hospital that this major development will entail, the health board has developed separate plans for the enhancement of the existing radiological capacity at the hospital to meet anticipated increased demand.

To this end, the board has completed the development and equipping of a second radiology room at the hospital at a capital cost of £113,000. The recruitment of a radiographer is in train and the board hopes to commence utilisation of the new facility by August this year. The recruitment of further staff to facilitate the full utilisation of the additional service capacity available will be considered as part of the development of services at the hospital in the year 2000 having regard to the availability of funding and the board's competing priorities.

I understand from the board that it is satisfied the existing radiology room in use at the hospital is adequately meeting current service demands. I am pleased to note that this is the case and that the board is taking appropriate steps to ensure the radiology service will continue to respond to needs as the overall development of services at the hospital proceeds.

In relation to the major phase 1 development, preparatory construction work is under way on the site with a view to enabling work on the main development to commence later this year at a cost of £13 million at January 1997 prices. This landmark development in the history of the health services in south Tipperary will involve the provision of a new accident and emergency department, ward accommodation, operating theatres, ICU, day care unit, central sterile supplies department, physical medicine department, education centre and counselling rooms.

This development will represent a hugely significant advance in the quality of service available to south Tipperary hospital patients. The development of services in south Tipperary has regrettably been impeded in the past by the long running dispute on the preferred organisational arrangements through which a modernisation programme was to be achieved. The final settlement of that issue through the signing of the south Tipperary hospital agreement in 1996 has paved the way for this development and the concurrent developments at Our Lady's Hospital, Cashel and in Tipperary town.

The overall objective is to ensure the services available to the people of south Tipperary are responsive to their needs. The Minister trusts that the developments under planning and under way will be seen as tangible evidence of his commitment in that regard.