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

Unless we get to the bottom of the particular issues of patient confidence and dealing with people on waiting lists for long periods of time, and do something about it very quickly, we will reach a situation where the level of anger from these patients is going to increase and the level of care is going to decrease because of the gap that exists in the system. For whatever reason, there are gaps in the system and they need to be filled quickly and we need to restore the health sector to some level of confidence. We have a larger population and many more young people. People say we have a high proportion of older people, but we have a high proportion of younger people also. The younger people look at the system and see what is happening and make their decisions accordingly.

If we are to presume that it will take another four to five years before we have the system up and running, that is going to be a problem. We have to do something that is in line, as has been said previously, with Sláintecare and put in place the various parts of the jigsaw that will deal with this and electrify that system to the extent that is necessary to create public confidence in it from the points of view of the patient and the management. If the management system does not work, then we need to find a way around that, to be able to pinpoint that, and to say that this particular hospital, for one reason or another, has handled a certain number of patients over a period of time, elective or emergency patients or whatever it is, and we need to ensure we have a high level of care, confidence and reliability. That, in itself, will restore some level of confidence in so far as patients are concerned. Otherwise, people will seek out the private system and deal with it because it will produce for them.