Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

This is the second anniversary of the Government's promise to eliminate waiting lists. That is a fact no matter what the Minister states. It raised hopes for many people that their loved ones would receive treatment, but these hopes have been dashed. Waiting lists were to be ended this week. Instead, there are 23,000 to 27,000 on the waiting list, depending on when the Minister speaks. How many patients are waiting to see a consultant to get on a waiting list? How many young children and young adults are on orthodontic waiting lists? Waiting time in the Western Health Board area is now four years, yet only a minority of those seen can get on the orthodontic waiting list. It was two years only a few years ago. After deceiving the people at the previous general election by promising to eliminate the waiting list, there are now 23,000 to 27,000 people on that list. All the Department and the Minister have done is massage the figures by writing to people asking them if they are still on the list and if they have had a procedure carried out privately. The Government tried the same approach in the run-up to the previous election, as a family informed me. They eventually received an apology from the Western Health Board as their loved one was dead for seven years.

How often do we see appointments made and then cancelled? I extracted information from the Western Health Board to the effect that there were 4,296 deferrals in 2003. Of that figure, 2,026 had procedures deferred once and 865 had procedures deferred more than once. There were 985 procedures deferred for lack of beds. Consultants deferred 406 procedures, 275 were deferred by hospitals and 638 had their admission date changed. What should I say to a man from an island off the Galway coast who has had an appointment cancelled three times? He comes to Galway, stays in a bed and breakfast, reports to the hospital having fasted for the night only to be told there is no bed. At the same time, the Western Health Board had a surplus of €15 million in 2002-03. How can it have such a surplus with service like that? The 31 beds in St. Anne's ward were closed. Had they been opened with the surplus, that man might have been treated. He was told he could not be seen that day, he then waited around Galway all day before getting a boat back in the evening. That is the reality.

An elderly patient had his surgery cancelled six times at University College Hospital Galway. If the reward system that the Minister is implementing is followed, health boards will cut back to stay within their budgets and be rewarded financially at the end of the year. It is no credit to the Western Health Board if it stays within its budget in 2003 because it was achieved through serious cutbacks. Many appointments were cancelled in 2003 and I am informed that it was because no beds were available in the hospital. No matter what the Minister of State says in his defence of the Government, that is the reality. I hope the people remember it on 11 June and I will tell the disappointed people that the worst thing possible in politics is to deceive people.

The Minister told them he would eliminate hospital waiting lists although he knew he could not do it, and now he knows he has not done it. The waiting lists are now at 25,000, yet the Minister was to have abolished them by this week.

See this speech in context