Lack of CT and diagnostic scans leading to nationwide delays
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Now our reporter Brian O'Connell joins me now in studio. Morning Brian. Morning David. Now you had a query for the HSE in the past week around waiting lists for CT scans and MRIs and you wanted to know how long people are waiting.
Well, it had been highlighted that diagnostic waiting lists were increasing. So some patients are waiting too long, basically, to get MRIs or CTs. So I just simply wanted to find out how many patients are waiting and how long are they waiting? So simple enough request, you would think. I suppose the idea is we don't have the data available. It's very hard to address this issue. Last year, we had learned 306,000 patients were waiting on diagnostic scans. We could see in data which was given in a reply to a parliamentary question that the number of people waiting last year over 18 months to get their scan had increased.
What are the current waiting times for CT and MRI scans?
So it was about 44,000 people waiting and there were almost 10,000 children waiting to get a diagnostic scan as well.
OK, so waiting lists growing and you've now discovered there is a high-tech, modern piece of scanning equipment sitting idle on the grounds of the new National Children's Hospital.
Well, information given to this programme shows some of the most modern high-tech diagnostic machines in the world have been on site at the National Children's Hospital since 2024. So these include MRI machines. Two of them were put there in June 2024. one of them in October 2024. Also on the site is something called a Somaton 4 CT scanner. Now, this is one of the most advanced CT scanners in the world. It was put there in June 2024, so almost two years ago.
Why are diagnostic waiting lists increasing in Ireland?
Now, one person I spoke to at Insight said it's likely to be in the region of about €10 million worth of diagnostic equipment. sitting on the site of the new children's hospital. It's obviously not being used and this equipment is so advanced that some of it is not even available anywhere else in the health service at the moment. We have about 120 MRI and CT scanners in total. So obviously any increase in the number of scanners would make a significant difference to those waiting lists. On the new National Children's Hospital site, Three of the five planned MRIs, I'm told, and two of the scanners were commissioned on the site in the last six months. They're actually in standby mode now. The warranties on the equipment don't begin until the first patient use.
So that's some good news. But the latest software packages and the upgrades, they will be installed, I'm told, before they begin that use. But I suppose the question here really is, At a time when waiting lists are growing, why is this equipment sitting idle by the time the hospital opens, maybe for three years, if you fast forward to next year? And why is it sitting here on the site and not being used? Now, David Cullinan, who's Sinn Féin's health spokesperson, he gave me his reaction to the fact high-tech diagnostic equipment is lying idle on this new site.
Well, it shows that the completion dates which have come and gone, we're at completion date number 19, heading very quickly for number 20 in terms of the children's hospital is not without its consequences. Obviously, the longer the hospital is not completed and not opened, we have very expensive equipment and we have a hospital which really should be open and treating children regularly. lying idle. There are problems that we're hearing about all of the time in relation to more possible delays. What we do know is that the Development Board are not in a position to tell us when the new completion date will actually happen. And all the while we have very expensive diagnostic equipment to the cost of 10 million, maybe more, sitting there not being used.
Some of it commissioned, some of it not being commissioned. So we know that children are waiting far too long for access to care. We need this children's hospital opened. We need these very expensive diagnostic tools and equipment available to clinicians so that children can get much more rapid access to diagnostics.
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