Hospital Staff
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-18
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Colm Burke (FG), Cork North-Central

I fully understand that this matter was probably only given to the Minister of State late last night. I will give her the figures as regards the turnaround in dermatology services for the entire country. One of the things she will see in those figures is the efficiency in the south-west region in dealing with dermatology cases. As I said, the volume is over 17,000 referred, while 10,000 were new and 12,000 were returning patients. With 7.4 consultants, a real effort is being made by the entire team, not just the consultants but also the registrars, senior house officers, SHOs, and nursing staff. The problem is that funding was provided for an additional eight paediatric dermatology consultants in Dublin. There are now ten there but none have been appointed to locations outside of Dublin, which is a mistake. When we see the efficiency of the Cork-Kerry region, we believe that a paediatric dermatologist appointed in that region would help to deal with and not clog up the lists, especially as there are long waiting lists in Dublin already. The Department should engage with HSE south west to see how this can be moved forward as regards appointing someone to deal with this issue. That is basically what I am asking.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-18