Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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703. To ask the Minister for Health the number of outpatient appointments that were cancelled at University Hospital Limerick during the period 8 August 2024 to 29 August 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42628/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I fully acknowledge the distress and inconvenience for patients and their families when hospital appointments and procedures are cancelled.

While every effort is made to avoid cancellations or postponements, they can happen for a variety of reasons, including capacity issues due to increased scheduled and unscheduled care demand, and unforeseen circumstances that may impact a service.

Patient safety remains at the centre of all hospital activity and elective care scheduling. To ensure services are provided in a safe, clinically aligned and prioritised way, hospitals follow HSE clinical guidelines and protocols.

Cancelled hospital appointments and procedures are, where appropriate, rescheduled as early as possible with priority given to patients requiring time-sensitive and urgent treatment.

As the Deputy will be aware, an expert support team was assigned to UHL ED in May, led by Grace Rothwell, HSE National Director. Following their review, the Support Team proposed a ‘full reset’ of the UHL site over a two-week period in Summer 2024.

The reset began on 8 August 2024, with suspended services gradually resuming from 19 August.

The HSE has advised that there is a waiting list recovery plan in place to reduce the impact of this ‘reset’ on waiting lists with associated actions to maximise the benefit of the reset. All patients who have had treatment deferred have been contacted directly by HSE staff and are being rescheduled as soon as possible.

In relation to the particular query raised, as this is a service matter I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.