Vol. 515 No. 2
18 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Health and Children the mechanisms, if any, he will put in place to ensure that, in the further development of renal services, there is the fullest possible consultation with the Irish Kidney Association and patient involvement at local level to ensure that services developed meet the actual needs of patients and any new services put in place are fully and properly evaluated. [5347/00]
124 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Health and Children his views on whether 60% of the renal population is being diagnosed and the renal services are operating at less than three quarters of full capacity; and the steps, if any, proposed by him to address these difficulties. [4872/00]
153 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Health and Children the mechanisms, if any, he will put in place to ensure that, in the further development of renal services, there is the fullest possible consultation with the Irish Kidney Association and patient involvement at local level to ensure that services developed meet the actual needs of patients and any new services put in place are fully and properly evaluated. [5626/00]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 18, 124 and 153 together.
A programme for the development of renal dialysis services was initiated by my predecessor as Minister for Health and Children with of an allocation of £3 million revenue funding and £3 million capital funding this year. This programme, which is to be completed over three years at an estimated total cost of £20 million, will be aimed at achieving a structured enhancement of the capacity of the system to meet existing and anticipated growth in demand for renal services over the coming years.
The need for an initiative of this nature was based on the rapid rate of growth in demand for renal services, fuelled by demographic and epidemiological factors and reflecting a potential previous under-diagnosis of the disease in this country. My Department's analysis of the pressures on the system which informed the current initiative included an assessment of the capacity of the existing infrastructure to meet current and projected future demand. This analysis found that while there was available spare capacity at present to meet the haemo-dialysis needs of the population as a whole, there were particular pressures in a number of centres and an overall need for investment in infrastructure to ensure that future projected demand growth could continue to be met.
