On 27 January I tabled a parliamentary question on this issue. I asked the Minister for Health and Children to provide a 24 hour on-call CT scan service at St. Luke's Hospital, Kilkenny. I asked about the procedure in place for scans required outside the hours of service, the locations used and the costs involved. In response I was told I would receive a reply from the South Eastern Health Board in regard to the matter. As is usual, to this day I have not received a reply to that parliamentary question.
Little did I know that on the same day an 18 year old boy would require that service out of hours at St. Luke's Hospital, Kilkenny. At almost 11 p.m. at night he was asked to travel to Beaumont Hospital where he received a scan. He travelled in the back seat of his parents' car wrapped in a sleeping bag on the way back to Kilkenny where he arrived at 6 a.m. in the morning. That is an unacceptable service. The people of the city paid almost £300,000 for the provision of a CT scan unit at St. Luke's Hospital. The full cost of the unit was £600,000. At that time, there was an expectation that an on-call service would be provided seven days a week for those who required it. They did not expect that at least one patient per week would have to travel to Beaumont Hospital for scanning. Such patients have to be accompanied by professional nursing staff and this also necessitates an ambulance being taken off call. It is a waste of money and is the cause of further anxiety and trauma to the patient involved.
The 18 year old boy to whom I referred died a number of days afterwards. Many families are affected by the fact that the CT scan is not working seven days a week on a 24-hour basis. It only operates from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Minister must intervene in this matter. There has been no response from the health board to requests made by hospital consultants and me on the matter.
On 24 February 2004 I asked the Minister to comment on a plan for a private operator to provide an MRI scanner at St. Luke's Hospital which would allow 750 public patients to be dealt with free each year. I tried to discover the outcome of a meeting that took place in 2003 between departmental officials and the consultant involved at St. Luke's Hospital. I asked if a needs assessment report which was prepared by the hospital was examined. I also asked if discussions had taken place with the private contractor. To this day I have not received the comprehensive response I requested.
There is a great need for this service in Kilkenny city and county and the surrounding counties. It is unacceptable that one person per week has to leave the county to access this service. What happened to the 18 year old boy is also unacceptable. I received a letter from his relatives which stated that he had spent his last night in a Dublin hospital. He travelled home tired and in pain. He never got to stay in his own home with his family again. The family found the staff at St. Luke's Hospital to be excellent, especially the nursing staff who must also be frustrated with the poor service on offer to the public in 2004. They felt that the people of Kilkenny would be outraged if they realised the limited operation of this vital service which was paid for by the people of Kilkenny. Having made a local contribution and received a commitment from the South Eastern Health Board that an on-call, seven days a week service would be provided, the health board should be asked to deliver.
We are in an age of public private partnerships and design, build and operate programmes. These terms are used by various Departments. I cannot understand why, when somebody from the private sector comes forward with a new concept of operating an MRI service and who is willing to conduct 800 free scans per year, this would be ignored, or that the response received would be so sluggish that the operator would be likely to go away. The people of Kilkenny and the region deserve better. As a public representative I deserve a better response from the health board. That family I spoke of deserves a better service. I expect a clear reply to both of my parliamentary questions and to the request made in regard to the private operator. The people of Kilkenny, who invested in that CT scan, also deserve a clear response. Any further investigation of the matter by the health board is not acceptable. What is required now is action.