Bone scan facility closes with 20-year waiting list

The closure of the main bone-density scanning service in the west of Ireland will lead to a rise in fractures and premature deaths among older people, a leading doctor has warned.

The DXA scanner at Galway University Hospital is being closed with immediate effect because of staff shortages, according to Prof John Carey, a specialist in osteoporosis.

The closure is the end of a service that was badly affected by cuts during the economic downturn. Before 2008, the hospital operated two DXA scanners, five days a week, but more recently just one machine was operating for two half-days.

As a result, there was a 20-year waiting list for bone scans, aside from priority cases, with thousands of patient records “just sitting in a box”, according to Prof Carey. “The two machines are just sitting there too, but there are no staff.”

The Health Service Executive, which is expected to overspend by at least €350 million this year, has severely cut back on staff recruitment this year in order to reduce costs. Three staff must leave before one new member can be recruited.

Embarrassing

The closure is particularly embarrassing for Galway staff, who are due to host a meeting of the International Society of Clinical Densitometry in the city next week.

"Over 300 experts are coming from as far away as China and Peru, and we won't be able to demonstrate a DXA scan for them," said Prof Carey. "We know that patients have been breaking bones while waiting for tests; now they'll break even more."

One in three men, and one in five women, die within a year of suffering a hip fracture, he said.

DXA scanners, which provide bone X-rays and measure the strength of bones, are critical to the diagnosis of osteoporosis and in determining how to treat fractures.

Prof Carey wrote to previous ministers for health about the situation in 2012 and 2015, but to no avail. Approval was given in 2013 for more staff, but they didn’t materialise, he said.

Prof Carey said Ireland has no national policy on osteoporosis, and the lowest number of orthopaedic surgeons in Europe.

A spokeswoman for the Saolta University Health Care Group on Friday night said: “Due to a shortage of radiographers – which is an issue nationally and internationally – the DXA scanning service in Merlin Park University Hospital had been reduced over the last number of years.

“Those patients who have had their DXA scans booked already will go ahead as planned. We are working to recruit the necessary staff to maintain the DXA scanning service.”