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

I thank our witnesses for attending this morning and for the information they have been able to give us. This harks back to a discussion we had about waiting lists in private session earlier. My query is still why we have waiting lists. The needs of the patient, that is, the person directly on the front line requiring attention, whatever that may be, must be the first consideration. I cannot for the life of me understand why we have these conversations from time to time. There seems to be a difficulty gaining access to services for people with a particular special needs requirement.

How has it come about that access to the service required is more difficult to secure in some parts of the country than in others? It is recognised that early diagnosis is of great importance and we preach that message all the time to our constituents and the parents of children who come to speak about the complicated application form. Arising from that, which guru designed the application form in such a complicated way? Remember that when these forms have been filled in, they have to be assessed by somebody again. It is a long drawn out assessment requiring serious study. We know it is a serious subject. This is not the first time that assessments have been done.

The HSE is trying to address this issue, although it may be going about it in the wrong way. The purpose of the exercise, however, is to try to ensure that children in all parts of the country get timely access to whatever diagnostics or treatments they require. Following on from that, what comparisons have been made with other jurisdictions, such as Northern Ireland and the UK which are our nearest neighbours, to compare like with like?

Can we do something that we are not doing to improve the system and bring it forward some little bit? This is something we as public representatives, and the Chairman in his professional capacity and a public representative, have had to do. We have had to meet the parents of children and explain that there is a delay. Why does there always have to be a delay? Surely we can introduce some system that does not have delays associated with it? To have a child waiting for two, three or four years, or six months for that matter, is an appalling situation because the parent does not know what the outcome will be. They are deeply concerned and deeply stressed, and nothing changes. We now discuss everything openly in this country with regard to health, but we must have come to a conclusion somewhere along the line that the first priority has to be the potential patient, namely, the person who has a disability or perceived disability but the parents of the children need to know where they are going. They need to have some information as to what the future holds for them. To tell them the child will be put on a waiting list, and that everything will be all right if they wait long enough and that something is sure to happen, is no way to treat patients.

My point is it is as easy to do things quickly as it is to do them slowly. As a matter of fact, to do things slowly has more complications and creates greater expense and costs all around than doing it the other way. Everybody says we need more resources. There has to be some reason that in some parts of the country the resources are more seriously deficient than in others. It is supposed to be a universal service. It is supposed to be delivered all over the country at the same time, in the same way, in the same fashion and to the same extent. Access to it is supposed to be universally applied also.

It appears to me that what the HSE is trying to do is standardise the service. Yes, we need to standardise it but we need to improve its availability and access to the service from the point of view of the children and the parents of those children, who have a deep concern and know that early diagnosis, early action and early treatment are key to the whole outcome. These are some of my thoughts.