Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates for their presentations. I saw most of it before I came in. Having watched the "Prime Time" programme, I think we are all shocked and disappointed but not really surprised. Two groups of people stood out for me. Those were people who did not have private medical insurance who knew they would be waiting longer and there were reasons that they would be waiting for longer. I assume it caused much more stress to that group of people. The second group of people who stood out to me were those consultants who actually work in the hospitals and who do a great job. I have been treated by consultants in University Hospital Limerick myself. I believe they fill in the gaps in some areas where other consultants are not available. I was particularly concerned that Croom Hospital was mentioned and that some 53% of patients were being treated through the private system. The programme referred to one particular patient, Mary Comber, from Limerick. That lady was on the waiting list for eye surgery for two years in University Hospital Limerick and having waited for as long as she could with her eyesight degrading, she ended up paying €1,800 for an operation on one eye in the same hospital, under the same private system, and only had to wait for two months for that. That is a crystal-clear example of the problem we have with consultants not doing work, with private patients and with people waiting for too long.

I have a small number of questions, mostly for Ms Cowan, as she was probably expecting. The "Prime Time" programme also said that one consultant - I am not sure where that consultant was based - was doing just 13 hours of a 39-hour contract. That is 33% of the time that consultant was contracted to work. Will Ms Cowan confirm that no consultant who is paid to work with public patients in the UL Hospitals Group is working that little? Is there any consultant who is working for less than 50% of his or her contracted hours? I do not expect everyone to work for 39 hours every week. Mr. Woods referred to a monthly report. Ms Cowan stated she does it in University Hospital Limerick. Is that conducted every month? Arising from such a review, has she ever gone to a consultant who did not do his or her hours and tried to recoup money back from the consultant for not doing his or her hours? If Ms Cowan has recouped money, will she tell us how much she has recouped and if she has not recouped money, will she explain why she cannot or has not done that? If she does not have the figures to hand, she might send them on to us, and if she does, how much money does University Hospital Limerick spend annually on private consultants?