The ongoing situation with regards the CT Scanner at Ennis General Hospital must be resolved. According to media reports no scans have been taken at Ennis since October, despite the addition of modern facilities and trained staff. Services at Mid West Regional Hospital Limerick are already overburdened and patients are being put to unnecessary trouble.
There has been a stream of conflicting information coming from the HSE with regards to this much needed facility. Last January, we were told that staff were hired and that operations would be up and running without further delay. Now we learn that services have been suspended again following the departure of a temporary radiologist. It just beggars belief that a €1 million state of the art facility would be out of action due to normal staff movements.
The HSE’s job in this instance is to ensure that staffing levels are covered and managed so that the public have access to the CT Scanner.
Yet again we have an example of total mismanagement of this facility over the course of the past twelve months. The CT scanner was commissioned following a long struggle by the people of County Clare. The HSE must do everything now to ensure this critical unit is fully staffed and operational. I will be writing to Minister for Health, Mary Harney and HSE CEO Brendan Drumm to ask them to step in and personally resolve this situation. I will also be asking again that this facility be made available not just to inpatients but outpatients as well. This would ensure that more Clare people could avail of the service and not have to make the journey to Limerick.