Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No. I allocated a very substantial amount to scoliosis. I met all concerned towards the start of last year. There is a very dedicated team there and we allocated a hell of a lot of money. The waiting lists have not come down in the way we were told they would and the way we all want them to come down. However, it is important to acknowledge what has happened. In 2019, which is the comparable pre-Covid year, 380 scoliosis procedures were done. Last year, 509 were done. That is approximately a one third increase. It is almost a 50% increase versus the previous year but that was a Covid year so it does not really count. In fairness to the people involved, they took the money, put in more resources and funded it over time. Cappagh hospital was brought in and it has done a fantastic job through its Cappagh Kids department, for example. The total number of children being seen has gone up by a third. That matters. The extra challenge we have is almost that number again came in through additional unexpected referrals and, therefore, the waiting lists did not fall to the level they should have.

A few extra things are happening this year. The fifth theatre in Temple Street hospital got delayed. It was meant to be up and running and open by the end of last year. It was not. It got delayed but I intervened and it is back on track. That is being put in place. My numbers will be slightly wrong so forgive me but approximately 20 additional beds were to be put into Children's Health Ireland, CHI, as well. From memory, approximately half of them, either eight or 12, are in place, while the other eight or 12 are being put in now, and more healthcare professionals are being recruited. I fully expect to see, and I will have this conversation with the teams involved in the next few weeks, is that number of 509, which is an important increase, going up a good bit again. Critically, however, we will then see the length of time these children are waiting going down. We are fully committed to children not waiting more than four months. That is what has been agreed with the scoliosis advocacy groups and that is what we must achieve. It is nothing to do with money as there is more money there than can be spent.

Primary care centres are another good news story. We now have 165 primary care centres throughout the country, 18 of which became operational last year while 12 more are scheduled to become operational this year. I am opening three before Friday evening. I opened two others last week. It is a great news story because, to the Deputy's point, these are not old bockedy community healthcare centres. These are state-of-the-art facilities, many of which have diagnostics that have down really well. There are diagnostics in Bray in my constituency, for example, and patients cannot believe they are now being referred for a scan by their GP. That is now free whether someone is a medical card or private patient. The State is paying the full cost and, in more and more cases now, patients are going down the road to their local primary care centre and getting their X-rays, which are going straight back to the GP.

I opened a primary care centre last week. It was amazing to see and the incredible passion among the community care teams can be seen in all of them. They told me, in what was quite a rural setting, they had come from an almost dilapidated single room to this modern, big, state-of-the-art multidisciplinary facility.

That has been happening all over the country. In terms of the staff, as the Deputy will be aware, we allocated 3,500. Most of those are now in place and the advice I have is that the rest of them will be in place this year. Nearly 3,500 staff will be in place and this is already making a big difference in respect of bedding and to the GPs.

Turning to the Deputy's question on the primary care reimbursement service, PCRS, or medical cards, we must always strive to get better. No more than the Deputy himself, I have numerous examples of constituents who have been trying in good faith to get medical cards and they might get something back telling them the documents cannot be returned or that they were out of the statutory number of days. Even if it was one bit of information that was left out, people get a letter back apologising, pointing out they did not provide a certain bit of information, the X number of days has now passed and the applicant needs to reapply. The staff members in the PCRS team are not trying to be difficult, rather they are implementing the rules. It is, then, up to us to change the rules. I would be open to an audit being done to ensure this system works better for patients. As we all know, much of the time when people are applying for these medical cards it is happening when they are already under great pressure. It might be a case of someone in the family having got very sick or whatever it might be. Anything we can do to make it easier for patients, we must consider.