David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I might just talk Mr. Reid through this because when we are looking at what is happening the best lens we have is our local hospital. I have no problem whatsoever with Mr. Reid and the HSE ensuring that health spending is contained. That is one of Mr. Reid's and the HSE's core functions and it should be. I have no problem, therefore, with that. I certainly accept that he has come into this job to ensure that he plays his part in making sure that patients get the best healthcare. I again have no difficulty with that. However, I tabled a parliamentary question to seek information on the outpatient waiting times across all specialties over five years. That was to get a sense of where the pressure points are in University Hospital Waterford and to see if solutions were being put in place to reduce the waiting times. In fact, the waiting times have all gone up where the pressure points are.

I will give some examples. In dermatology, almost 5,000 patients were waiting to see a consultant. Of those, 1,576 were waiting for one to two years and 665 for two to three years. Turning to orthopaedics, which has been a problem for many years, 1,267 patients were waiting for one to two years and 959 between two and three years. There was a major problem as well with the ear, nose and throat department waiting lists, where 2,805 patients were waiting between one and two years and 1,500 between two and three years. Urology and dermatology similarly have problems and have done so consistently for the last five or six years.

One of my functions as an Oireachtas Member, along with other local Oireachtas Members, is meeting regularly with the hospital group hospital managers. We have a good relationship with them. They point out to us where the pressure points are and unless capacity is increased in these areas the wait times are not going to go down. Mr. Reid has just written to all hospital managers to state, essentially, that they should come in on budget. Is there flexibility with that demand? I refer to a situation where extra funding is needed to reduce waiting times in areas where there are obvious pressures and where large numbers of people have been waiting for two, three or even four years. Is there flexibility in that case for the HSE to accept that is fair enough and allow the extra resources to be committed?