Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will do my very best. I thank Deputy Donnelly. Certainly, when I look to reform I will definitely look to the future and I will not the past. The way that people have endeavoured to reform the health service has created many of the current problems. The establishment of a national entity, an idea most political parties agreed with, was botched. As a result, we have layers of bureaucracy that often make it impossible for citizens to find answers. I welcome the cross-party approach to how we should reform the health service in a way that is very much better than the reforms that have gone before.

Deputy Donnelly listed a number of objectives which he claimed have nothing to do with Sláintecare. They are very much in the programme, as the Deputy knows. Sláintecare deals extensively with the issues I raised in connection with waiting lists and calls on me to address them. What I am doing is accounting to this committee today for my intention to do that.

I do not accept the Deputy's assertion that everything in healthcare has worsened. It depends on what one measures. For starters, let us talk about waiting lists. Some of the figures now published on waiting lists were not published before the Government took office. Outpatient figures were not published before 2014. When speaking about current figures the Deputy is not comparing like with like. There are challenges in terms of waiting lists. In line with a commitment agreed by Deputy Donnelly's party and my party in the confidence and supply agreement, the number of people waiting for inpatient day-case treatment has fallen by 13,000.

Outpatient services are a major challenge. One of the main ways to address the issue is through the Sláintecare model by identifying who can be seen locally in the primary care centre by a general practitioner or an advanced nurse practitioner. Many of the metrics are much better than previously. I do not suggest the Deputy did this but blaming Government policy for all of the failures in the health service and crediting everything but Government policy and investment for everything that is good in it does not stand up to scrutiny. Children with cystic fibrosis will, thank God, live an awful lot longer than they would have done heretofore. That is as a result of great clinicians but also the significant investment we have made in drugs such as Orkambi. The same applies to outcomes for cancer, stroke, heart conditions and life expectancy. While having one person on a trolley is one too many, the HSE TrolleyGAR number fell by 5% in September.

I accept that there is a substantial body of work to do and very many challenges in healthcare. However, I do not accept that everything in healthcare is in crisis because every single day many people have a positive experience. We surveyed patients who stayed at least one night in an acute adult hospital last year. When we asked how they found their experience from the moment they walked into the emergency department to the moment they were discharged, 86% of respondents indicated their experience was good or very good. However, I need to be worried every moment of every day about the 14% who did not have a good experience. If we are to address that issue, we need to implement Sláintecare.

The Sláintecare plan has credibility because it has something we have never had before in healthcare. First, all of us support it but, more important than the political support for the plan, it has a decent chance of being given the time it will need to function. In case Deputy Donnelly is ever appointed Minister for Health, I should point out that what people in the health service despair about is another new Minister arriving with a bright shiny plan. We now have one plan and we are all pulling in the same direction. It will require resources. To answer the Deputy's question on delivering Sláintecare and accountability for its delivery, as the Minister for Health, I am accountable for delivering it. Ms Magahy is charged with running the Sláintecare office but I am accountable to the Oireachtas for the delivery of this plan. If we publish an action plan at the end of this year and say we will do this, that and the other and report against that every six months, I will be accountable to the Deputy and he people of Ireland for achieving those commitments.