Cork North West TD Michael Moynihan has hit out at the ongoing hospital bed crisis, asking the Health Minister if his waiting time targets are “real or imaginary”.
The Fianna Fáil TD quizzed Health Minister Simon Harris about the issue in the Dáil this week, asking him to explain the “substantial increase” in the number of outpatients waiting
for more than a year for a consultation at Cork University Hospital.
“Last week, serious life-saving surgery had to be cancelled as a result of the bed crisis at CUH. Everything is backed up. First consultations are backed up as are second consultations and, when it comes to surgery, this is also backed up or stopped. Not only is this at Cork University Hospital but it is throughout the Cork region,” he said.
“In many instances, the waiting times for initial consultations have exploded.” Mr Moynihan said previous Health Ministers had set targets for waiting times, and wanted to know if these targets meant anything.
“Are these targets somewhere in the clouds? Are they real or imaginary targets? Is the Minister for Health setting higher targets to try to clear the list?” he asked.
“The Minister should not be under any illusion that the most serious cases are getting to the front at the start because this is not the case.”
Minister Harris said he was aware of the increase in
the number of patients waiting more than a year for an outpatient appointment at CUH but explained that the rise must be seen “in
context” and said the health system is currently experiencing an increased demand for care.
“It was brought to my attention only today that 13,500 more elective surgeries have been carried out in the Irish health system this year than was the case last year, so we are seeing increased demand, increased activity and more procedures,” he said.
“Nonetheless, it is a key challenge for us to ensure timely access to health services and I am assured by the hospital group that those patients whose clinical needs are most urgent are prioritised.”
He said improving hospital waiting times is a priority for the HSE, his department and, indeed, for the whole Government.
“The Department [of Health] is engaging with the HSE on the development of an action plan, asking each hospital what more it can do to address waiting times,” he said.
“I am conscious of the fact that for the first time in years the
director general of the HSE has stated he has enough funding to deliver the service plan in front of him.”
“Hospitals will be instructed to develop and implement process improvement plans, focusing on improving chronological scheduling, clerical and administrative validation of waiting lists and
the optimisation of existing capacity.”
Minister Harris said, however, that “the very honest answer” is that we have a health system which lost 12,000 staff during the years of economic recession.
“We have put back 6,000 of 12,000 staff but we need not pat ourselves on the back because we need at least another 6,000 to get us back to where we were before the financial collapse,” he said.
“Continued investment in our public health service to ensure there is adequate capacity in terms of staffing numbers, consultant posts and front-line staff is absolutely the answer.”
Meanwhile, nationally, hospital waiting lists have reached a record high- with 517,000 public patients now in the queue for an outpatient appointment, surgery or diagnostic procedures.
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