James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

With all due respect, it is necessary to observe that the Minister has been in office for four years and the Health Service Executive in existence longer. The purpose of the reorganisation of the management of health services was to bring about a uniformity in the delivery of care. We can only look to the Minister herself in assessing the failure to address the issue she has just raised, namely, the lack of uniformity of approach, where particular procedures can be done on an outpatient basis in some hospitals but require inpatient admittance in others. No attempt has been made to resolve this problem.

The Minister has not answered the core question, which is a simple arithmetic question. How does one tally a reduction in inpatient procedures of 50,000 with an increase of 10,000 in outpatient procedures? Will the Minister explain how the apparent net deficit of 40,000 will be overcome and how it will not result in longer waiting times and increased pain and worry for patients?

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