Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Rabbitte asked me a number of questions. There are 1,000 more beds in the public system in the last three years alone. I do not have the figures back to 1997. Some 500,000 patients are being dealt with effectively and efficiently by the medical services on a daycare basis. It was a fraction of that ten years ago. Thankfully, the same acute highly sophisticated hospital beds are no longer needed, as in the past, since the system has been modernised. That is the point Professor Drumm is making. We have the ability to take people in as day cases. Hernia operations are now performed on a one-night basis. They took ten days when I worked in the health service. Cardiac surgery could have taken six weeks and now people are being moved out after five or six days. These are major improvements in the service. The Deputy referred to the problems of 1989. There were problems with the entire health service because it was under-resourced. That it why we raised the health service budget from €3 billion to €12 billion. It was under-staffed and that is why we put over 35,000 more people into it.

On the beds issue, I again ask Members to please listen to the point I am making. The figures were higher when the winter vomiting bug was at its height and with the 'flu epidemic in January and February, because I watch the statistics every day. Today, 411 patients in this city are being medically discharged. Traditionally, such patients would have gone home, but they cannot do that. That is why we have been using——

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