Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 January 2021
1061. Deputy Richard O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Health the position regarding wait times for MRI scans at University Hospital Limerick; if funding will be secured for an additional MRI scanner for University Hospital Limerick; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1667/21]
View answerIt is recognised that waiting times for scheduled appointments and procedures have been impacted in the last year as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Further to the deferral of most scheduled care activity in March, April, and May of last year due to the pandemic, the HSE is currently recommending that only critical time dependent elective procedures are undertaken at this time due to the on-going and significant increased demand for bed capacity related to Covid-19.
This decision was made arising from the rapid increase in Covid-19 admissions and to ensure patient safety and that all appropriate resources were made available for Covid-19 related activity and time-critical essential work.
Patient safety remains at the centre of all hospital activity and elective care scheduling. To ensure services are provided in a safe, clinically-aligned and prioritised way, hospitals are following HSE clinical guidelines and protocols.
In relation to the information requested by the Deputy on wait times for MRI scans, the attached spreadsheet provides the wait times for MRI scans at University Hospital Limerick subject to the caveats detailed below. The NTPF advise that Diagnostics data is collected quarterly and this data relates to the waiting list as of 30th September 2020. Q4 2020 data is currently being collated and validated.
In terms of the MRI data, the HSE advises that a pilot project commenced in 2016 by HSE Acute Hospitals Division to progress the collection of national radiology waiting list data. The project has been supported by the Radiology Clinical Care Programme and has involved key stakeholders across the system including the National Integrated Medical Imaging System (NIMIS) Team, Hospital Groups, and the support of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) for data collection and data management expertise.
The information that is currently being collected is presently being tested and validated at hospital, hospital group and national level and as such should not be used/reported without the context of the caveats set out below:
- Data is subject to inclusions and exclusions which are documented in the Data Profile Document. This document is available from Acute Operations and has been circulated to all Hospital Groups.
- Data contains urgent, routine and surveillance/planned activity which is currently not broken down in detail, as such this includes surveillance/planned activity which may not be exceeding planned date.
- Data is still undergoing validation at Hospital and Hospital Group level.
- Data does not take into account local nuances at site level (Site profile developed to support understanding of same).
- The purpose of this aggregate data is to provide a National Level overview of the number of patients waiting for modalities of CT, MRI and Ultrasound.
- This report is not intended to be used for the active management of hospital diagnostics waiting list, local reports and mechanisms should continue to be used for the management of diagnostics waiting lists at hospital level.
In relation to the particular query raised by the Deputy concerning funding for an additional MRI scanner for University Hospital, Limerick, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
