Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for attending this morning. What issue do they consider most important to improve the service they provide to their patients in the community, whether in urban or rural settings? Apart from what we heard in the opening statement, what are the most immediate changes needed? We must recognise, however, that we do not have an open cheque book and have to keep an eye on comparisons with other countries in the OECD. That is a fact of life. I know that everyone will say, as we say ourselves, that that is okay but we are in a particular situation now from whence we have to extricate ourselves. However, we must remain within reasonable comparisons.

When a patient cannot get access to a service that a GP refers to, what are the causes of the delay? We have thousands of people on waiting lists. I am a former member of one of the health boards and I cannot understand why we have lists at all. That is the first question. What is the cause of a waiting list? If a waiting list is six months long, why not have it three months, two months, three weeks or something like that? Why can we not identify the extent of the problems? From the witnesses' perspective, what are the contributory factors to the huge amount of stress to patients all over the country? I have no doubt they cause a huge amount of distress to the witnesses also. When we table a parliamentary question asking that someone receives a service after waiting for two or three years, and there have been longer periods, we are told to get a letter from the GP if it is urgent. Everything becomes urgent after a while. If the patient waits long enough without receiving treatment, the patient will no longer be a patient. That is the sad part of it. To what extent have the witnesses found frustration and annoyance at this kind of thing?

Apart from Sláintecare, we have done our own research. We also have anecdotal evidence as to what every branch of the health service, including GPs, consultants and junior hospital doctors, sees as a problem. There are numerous problems. If the witnesses were to select the three most important items to improve the service to the patients they serve and to get a reasonable degree of reliance, job satisfaction and improvement in the service delivery to the patient, what would they be?