Brian O'Connell

What it tells us, there are over 274,000 waiting for diagnostic scans at the end of Q1 this year.

15% waiting more than 18 months later.

with almost one in four waiting a year or more.

Now, Clare Cahill, who's from the Scoliosis Advocacy Network, she spoke to me about the impact not having timely access to diagnostics can have.

And what is happening in practice, Clare?

Are parents and patients simply trying to access private care?

What impact does it have when you can't get timely access to diagnostics?

And then, as I have discovered, we have some of the most advanced high-tech scanning equipment in the world sitting idle on the site of the new National Children's Hospital, in some cases since June 2024.

And I suppose everyone would have accepted there would have been a bit of a lag from when you put equipment on a site to when the site is open and fully functioning.

But I mean, up to three years by the time it opens, possibly.

And I think, you know, as we refer to there, everybody would accept that there would be some bit of a lag time between placing the equipment on the site, getting it up to speed, and then the ongoing delays are adding to that lag time.

So that's what's really creating the frustrations here.

I mean, some of these machines can scan you head to toe in three seconds.

So for patients of trauma, for example, who've been involved in a car accident,

They're really game changers in terms of the kind of technology they can dispose of now.

Someone I spoke to about diagnostic delays as well as the Irish Cancer Society is Emma Hart.

She's policy and campaigns manager and she also underlined the need not only for up-to-date data but also access to diagnostics within the national set targets.

So clearly in Ireland, we have increasing waiting lists in relation to access to diagnostic scans.

We can see that from some of the data.

And if somebody needs a diagnostic scan at the moment, I mean, what's happening or what are you hearing from your patients?