Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. In January 2014, following a Fianna Fáil motion in the other House on the 2014 HSE service plan, our view at that time was that the plan was insufficient for the health service.

The Minister's predecessor stated: "For people and patients, a key barometer of the success of our reform programme must be the performance of emergency departments and waiting lists." He also stated that chaos was 569 people on trolleys on a day in January 2011. In the Minister's early days in the role he has managed to surpass this chaos. We are likely to see a further deterioration in waiting lists in 2015. At present, approximately 59,463 people are on the inpatient day-case list and 5,205 of these are children. Approximately 21.5% of adults wait for more than eight months and, scandalously, more than 2,100 children, which is almost 40%, wait for longer than the 20 week Government target. There has been an increase of 385% on the number of patients waiting for more than a year for an outpatient appointment. This is quite a big increase from 9,406 people last January.
The director general of the HSE admitted the €180 million in non-specific pay savings included in the 2014 service plan was never sought as it was not realistic. He stated the €180 million was not allocated as it was not meaningful or real and would have had an unfortunate impact on the morale of people working in the HSE. It is reasonable that people might ask why we should believe the Minister that the budget brought before us this year is sufficient for the year ahead. By the Minister's own admission it is not. A net €115 million is being set aside for the year ahead, including all of the waiting lists which are set to rise. Mr. Tony O'Brien, the director general, stated the one year target is not achievable.
What was aptly termed chaos by the then Minister, Deputy Reilly, has been surpassed. None of this is happening without due warning. I am sorry for mentioning names, but these people have public roles. For many months Mr. Fergal Hickey, the head of the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine, told us a major crisis was ahead. In the early part of last year the five CEOs of the Dublin hospitals stated patient safety was a genuine concern because of cuts to the acute hospital sector, the closure of beds, the moratorium on staff, the fact we cannot get consultants and the fact we cannot get people to work because morale is low. In the weeks running up to Christmas, our flagship hospital in urology, among other disciplines, had to close its doors because it could not deal with the crisis. This continued to get worse and a talk shop has been set up to plan. It seems we have plan after plan but no money to deal with the problem.
I have no doubt all Members can replicate the stories I have heard. On Sunday morning, I spoke to a gentleman in Sligo who told me his 68 year old sister was told to report to St. James's Hospital for a planned surgery of a serious nature but after driving there was told no bed was available. This is not an acceptable service. Yesterday week, a gentleman with a serious prostate condition expected to be admitted for surgery in University College Hospital Galway but was told there was no bed for him. These instances are fundamentally unacceptable. The chaos the then Minister, Deputy Reilly, quite rightly described is being papered over with spin once the facts are laundered through the HSE PR agency of choice. What is the plan?
The Minister spoke about clinical programmes. I agree that the outcomes from the national cancer control programme have improved. There have also been improvements in the 90 minute turnaround on stenting following a heart attack for approximately 75% of the population, but the 25% of the population who live where I do, in the north west of the country, in Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal, Cavan and north Roscommon, are at a disadvantage. There is no Government plan to provide them with the same services and give them the same survivability from a heart attack. There are no cardio-categorisation laboratory facilities in this part of the country and no plans to develop them. This is dismissed by stating other options are available, but they are not.
We have conceded the fact that we are not prepared to have a decent ambulance service because we do not have the money. The fleet is ageing and staff and vehicle resources are insufficient. We do not have any where near the turnaround times necessary. The report which was leaked last week stated Ireland is too rural for us to expect to enjoy the same outcomes as the UK. If Government policy is to throw in the towel before we begin, I have huge concerns. The Minister mentioned some improvements in primary care and these are welcome. We should be using our primary care centres in a much better way. We should negotiate with GPs how best they can extend services rather than having machines and pilot programmes for minor surgeries. A significant amount more should be done in this regard.
While the national cancer control programme has improved outcomes, my part of the country has nothing despite endless commentary and promises from the Labour Party and Fine Gael in the run-up to the election and since. The former Minister of State, Deputy Perry, is on the front page of The Sligo Championtoday stating follow-up mammography services will return to Sligo Regional Hospital. This is another act of political delinquency, as he undertakes to deliver from the backbenches what he could not do as a Minister of State. I presume he is teeing up his exit strategy from Fine Gael because he probably intends to leave the party and run as an independent when the Government does not deliver. I notice an absence of the Fine Gael logo in his advertisements.