Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I commend Deputy Reilly for bringing this timely motion before the House and I thank him for sharing his time with me.

The Health Service Executive has recently been described as inefficient and not fit for purpose by the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association. It has accused the HSE of being dysfunctional and disconnected from staff who provide the care. It said the State organisation was not just cutting the cost of providing care but cruelly cutting the amount of care. It said that when the HSE was set up, not a single job was lost and no efficiencies have been introduced to date. This is an indictment of a very important agency charged with the delivery of health in this country. It cannot be allowed to carry on in this fashion. It is incumbent on the Minister to take responsibility at this stage to redress the many faults in the organisation.

At a recent health forum, Dr. John Barton, cardiologist at Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe, said that research in 21 OECD countries found that Ireland had the third most inequitable system in terms of access to hospital care. Two factors contributing most to this imbalance are private health insurance and medical cards. A total of 50% of the Irish population now pay health insurance. Many of these pay out of fear of the public system.

Within the past few days, a young mother in County Galway, who had a planned admission for ongoing chemotherapy at University College Hospital Galway, was refused admission and her treatment postponed. She was to have a re-appointment in nine weeks but received a letter stating the appointment would be in nine months' time. This is the Minister's centre of excellence. She has withdrawn cancer services from other centres throughout the HSE west region and given assurances on numerous occasions that all cancer needs for the HSE west region could be provided at University College Hospital Galway. This is another scandal to add to those already on the record of this House. Are we going to have another Susie Long case in the making?

This incompetence is unbelievable at a time when the HSE west employs the highest proportion of corporate staff compared to any other HSE region. A total of 813, or 3.03% of the 26,000 staff is corporate. The HSE west is imposing cuts of approximately €7 million on services at Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe, before the end of this year and approximately €12 million in Galway hospitals. The management of HSE west is calling for reconfiguration of the health system, which will affect these front line services, but there has been little or no reconfiguration of the management in the HSE. Furthermore, the HSE has indicated that a pilot scheme will be trialled in Dublin hospitals next year, whereby budgets will be allocated on the basis of how many patients the hospitals treat rather than the block grant associations we have had heretofore. This will wipe out hospitals where the Minister has sanctioned and the HSE has implemented cutbacks in front line services. The reconfiguration of hospital services under this proposal, albeit a pilot scheme, will lead to the downgrading of hospitals such as Portiuncula and probably Roscommon hospital in the Galway network. I ask the Minister to take control of the HSE to avoid situations like this.

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