Harney to probe CT scan delay

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney has agreed to investigate why a life-saving CT scanner remains idle at a general hospital since last December.

Despite repeated promises by Government and the HSE, staff have still not been appointed at Mallow General Hospital to operate the €1 million machine, vital to detecting early signs of cancer and other abnormalities.

Ms Harney promised to investigate after Deputy Sean Sherlock raised the issue in the Dáil.

The Labour Party TD said he wanted her to report back with an exact date for when the machine will be operational.

“It’s a ludicrous situation, with patients being ferried to Cork to have a scan which should be readily available to them in Mallow. The policy relating to these machines throughout the country makes absolutely no sense. They install them, but put no one in place to make them operational, which is also the case in Nenagh and Drogheda,” said Mr Sherlock.

The delay in appointing staff to operate the machine was recently criticised by cancer survivor and comedian Jon Kenny. The D’Unbelievables star, described the situation as “an absolute disgrace”.

Kenny, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease in 2000, asked what the point of having the machine was when there was nobody to operate it.

Spokesman for Friends of Mallow Hospital Noel O’Connor said: “If the Government bought a new jet you can be sure it would be flown the next morning. They wouldn’t wait nearly 12 months to employ a pilot.”