Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the guests for their presentations here this morning and for dealing with the queries raised. It is important that I would raise something at the very start. There was reference this morning to the health service that does not work. It is important to highlight that the health service is working and that there are more than 3.5 million outpatient appointments per annum between all our hospitals. It is important that we do not portray a total negative response about the health service. Also, life expectancy in Ireland is now one of the highest across Europe. We need to acknowledge that, too. Yes, there are glitches and I am one of the first to highlight issues where there are problems.

First, I turn to cost savings in the HSE. One area where there are not cost savings in real terms is the roll-out of IT and the whole area of the computerisation of medical records and patient data. For instance, if you are in Cork attending three different hospitals there is a paper file in each hospital. With maternity hospitals, it is completely computerised in something like five maternity units but there are 19 maternity units in total. If we have developed it in five, why can we not progress it with the others? There are huge cost savings. This ties in with the other issue of junior doctors leaving. I was speaking to one of our junior doctors recently. One of the big issues that they are so frustrated with in the system here in Ireland is that they spend over 50% of their time trying to follow up issues like scans or reviews whereas if this was all put up on computer they would be able to access it immediately. This is a huge waste of valuable time. Starting with the maternity hospitals, why have we not rolled it out in all 19 units?