Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)

Mr. Watt, Mr. Gloster and their teams are very welcome. I thank them for being here today. I am going to get straight into the questions because we do not have an unlimited amount of time. I have three questions in respect of capital expenditure, services and waiting lists. The waiting list question relates to gynaecology waiting lists, and specifically outpatient gynaecology waiting lists. In 2020, then Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, told me that 30,180 women were waiting on an outpatient gynaecology appointment, and that this was because of Covid. In February 2021 then Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, told me there were 30,805 women waiting on an outpatient appointment due to the deferral of elective surgery, again caused by Covid. Today there are 34,081 women waiting on an outpatient gynaecology appointment. These are women who very clearly have concerns, which often present as abnormal bleeding, fibroids, endometriosis, ovarian cysts and prolapse. These are very serious conditions. My question is very straightforward. These figures show a 13% increase. What has gone wrong here? Why is such a high number of women waiting on an outpatient gynaecology appointment, particularly when we know the level of women who are diagnosed with very serious medical conditions through gynaecology appointments? As part of those waiting lists I note that 567 are at CHI. These are children, of whom 18 have been waiting for more than 18 months.

My second question relates to capital expenditure and particularly in relation to the Regional Hospital Mullingar and its sexual assault treatment unit. The 2024 report on sexual assault treatment units highlighted Mullingar hospital as the unit with the third highest level of demand, I would be reluctant to say "busiest". User feedback, however, spoke of the lack of accessibility for people with mobility issues. It spoke of it being noisy and a lack of space, which is not something any of us want to hear being said, and especially when we look at the excellent reports that service users have experienced and the level of care they received there. Are there plans for a capital build for the sexual assault treatment unit in Mullingar hospital?

My final question relates to reports in the media over the last week to ten days regarding the HSE seeking private providers to reduce the backlog of autism assessments for children and teens. If our current level of services are not capable of providing these assessments what reassurance can the HSE give to the committee that those levels of services are then in a position to accept the recommendations contained in those private assessments and will be able to meet the needs of those children within the public service?