asked the Minister for Health the amount of additional funding being provided to the Western Health Board this year to finance the opening and running of the CAT scanner at Galway Regional Hospital.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Galway Regional Hospital CAT Scanner.
8.
The commissioning of the CAT scanner at Galway Regional Hospital is one element in a set of measures that are designed to rationalise health services in the Western Health Board area and my Department's contribution towards the running costs of the scanner will be determined in the light of the financial consequences of implementing the entire set of rationalisation measures concerned.
The board have been asked to submit proposals to my Department to implement these measures, together with an assessment of their financial implications, and I am awaiting the board's proposals in the matter.
Is the opening of the CAT scanner, which is so badly needed in Galway, conditional on the closure of the Castlerea psychiatric hospital?
The Deputy will appreciate that when we got in touch with the Western Health Board we notified them of a package of proposals covering Castlerea, Swinford mental handicapped centre and the bringing on stream of the CAT scanner, which will take four or five months, and we are now awaiting their response. I hope we will get their cooperation, otherwise that piece of equipment will fall apart from rust. It was bought for political reasons, and there has been no provision made for revenue money. This is a mess and since 1983 I have been trying to get this mess unravelled.
The Minister must accept that it makes good economic sense and that it would be cost effective to have a CAT scanner in operation in Galway. This would mean that people in the west would no longer have to travel to Dublin or Cork for a CAT scan which is a very important and essential part of modern medical investigation. It is illogical for the Minister to suggest that this CAT scanner was bought for political reasons. Surely he will accept that this scanner should be operative and that it would be cost effective if it were? It is because he has not allocated funds for its operation that it is not now in use.
I must confess that if I had to look at the matter on an objective basis I am not sure I would agree with the Deputy. The Deputy knows that to fully utilise a CAT scanner would cost the best part of £750,000. To utilise this equipment and to staff it every day of the week it would need to cover a population of 700,000 people and that catchment area is extraordinary in that regard. There are now four CAT scanners in this country — one at St. Laurence's Hospital, one at St. Vincent's Hospital, one at the Mater Hospital and one at the Cork Regional Hospital. Are we to have CAT scanners all over the country—one in Letterkenny, another in Limerick, and so on, all working at 20 to 25 per cent of capacity? The reality is that there is a CAT scanner in Galway and it was put there for political reasons——
In the west of Ireland.
I do not want to see this equipment deteriorating. By using this equipment efficiently the health boards might be able to reduce the number of admissions to hospitals and deal with patients more effectively. In this way they could save money. With these savings they could employ the extra staff they will require — an extra consultant radiologist, two extra radiographers, an extra physicist, another nurse, a clerk typist and porter — to run that equipment.
All of which they have available in Dublin.
They should be able to save sufficient money to run that equipment which should cost about £100,000.
(Interruptions.)
Question No. 11 from Deputy McEllistrim, who is sitting there patiently since Question Time began, and it is not unreasonable that his question should be reached. If we go on the way we are will not reach it.
Is the Minister saying that the net additional cost is approximately £100,000 per annum?
Is that question on CAT scanners?
It is about £100,000 a year. That might be reduced substantially. It really depends on how many people are finally employed. I do not believe too many staff are necessary. We could probably run it for about £50,000 a year.
Did the Minister say that when the CAT scanner was installed in Galway no financial allocation was made for the running costs? Was there any financial allocation made for the installation cost of the CAT scanner unit and how much was that?
No disrespect to the health board, but it was a typical mess. The total cost of the scanner in August 1981 when we gave approval, which as I said was given largely on political grounds and nothing to do with medical priority for the hospital, was £608,000 exclusive of VAT. At the time we also gave a grant of £50,000 to provide the necessary accommodation for the hospital to house the CAT scanner. However, the board decided, rather than build a new building for the scanner, that they would provide a new accident and emergency department to accommodate it and went away and spent £78,000. The additional cost was met from European Social Fund moneys. It is one of those typical messes but we are straightening it out now.