Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Minister for Health and Children has been assured by the Health Service Executive that any patient referred to St. Luke's Hospital for an endoscopy and considered urgent by her doctor will be given an immediate appointment and seen within one or two weeks.

I do not look at the health service from a strange or different perspective from Deputy Gilmore. I hear what patients are saying and I also hear complaints. Improvements are required. Annual capital investment to improve services and facilities amounts to €500 million. In some cases reforms are necessary. These are well documented. The HSE and the Department of Health and Children have spelled out where reforms would systematically help the health service in areas where there are difficulties. For example, they believe centres of excellence and the grouping of consultants and facilities would lead to a better service, which brings its own controversies.

Availability of staff is also an issue. The health service must be available 365 days a year. It is not a 35 or 39 hours a week service. Extra staff are needed at key times. Reforms are required and we are trying to implement them at all staffing levels.

I acknowledge that many complaints are genuine and that upsets or even fatalities are suffered by patients. Nevertheless, when patients, as distinct from commentators, were asked about the health service, 76% of inpatients said they were admitted to hospital immediately upon being told they needed admission.

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