A consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Merlin Park Hospital in Galway has said it could be September before operating theatres at the hospital are re-opened after a year out of service.
Two operating theatres at Merlin Park were shut on health and safety grounds last September when significant leaks in the roof were discovered.
Repair works were completed on 1 November, but over three months later, the theatres remain closed as they have yet to receive the required health and safety approval.
All elective orthopaedic procedures, including hip and knee replacements, spinal procedures and hand and foot surgeries, have been postponed since September.
Approximately 1,100 patients are waiting for surgery at Merlin Park.
More than 5,000 others are waiting for outpatient appointments, with the majority of those coded 'urgent' by doctors.
These figures are set to grow as uncertainty persists over whether the theatres will re-open.
Both the Saolta Hospital Group, of which Merlin Park is part of, and the Department of Health, say plans are at an advanced stage for emergency modular theatres, but no date has been set for them to become available.
Speaking to RTÉ Drivetime, Dr Aiden Devitt, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Merlin Park, said: "We expected that we would be operational in terms of the modular theatres by January or February 2018, but in actual fact we have made very little progress in that regard."
Surgeons at Merlin Park say that as the hospital building dates back to the 1950s plans should be made to merge the two existing theatres into one for safety reasons.
However, they claim nobody is taking responsibility for getting any theatre re-opened.
The Saolta Hospital Group said it is waiting for a clinical report on whether the theatres are safe for use since the roof repair works were completed.
It also says the contract to build the modular theatres will be awarded "in the coming weeks".
Local Fianna Fáil Cllr Peter Keane has called on the Minister for Health Simon Harris to urgently intervene in order to help the patients who are in pain and are waiting for a procedure.
Fine Gael Cllr Padraig Conneely says he plans to raise the issues at Merlin Park with the HSE authorities at next week’s meeting of the Regional Health Forum West.
