Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this vital issue for discussion. Some days ago we heard the shocking revelation that the number of people waiting longer than three months for a colonoscopy has more than doubled in the past year. Colonoscopies are used in the early detection of bowel cancer and are therefore a crucial life-saving measure. It is shocking that the waiting list now stands at more than 2,400, according to the National Treatment Purchase Fund. The Irish Cancer Society has stated that more people than ever before are now waiting longer than three months for this crucial test, with an additional 1,400 joining the list in the past year. Beaumont Hospital in Dublin has the largest waiting list at 662.

The waiting list at St. Luke's General Hospital in Kilkenny is also very large. This should strike a particular chord because it was there that a young mother, Susie Long's, diagnosis of bowel cancer was delayed by a catastrophic seven months in 2005 to 2006, which cost her life and deprived her family of a devoted partner and mother. She died because she was on a public waiting list. Had she been wealthy or covered by private health insurance, it is most likely this tragedy would have been averted. The then Minister for Health admitted that the health service nationally had failed Susie Long and many others in her position.

Five years later, it is shameful in the extreme that waiting lists are lengthening. It is little wonder that Conor MacLiam, husband of Susie Long, has expressed his anger that after the tragedy he and his family endured, a situation could continue where other people might suffer the same fate. That is a betrayal of the serious, solemn promise made following Susie Long's death that nobody would have to wait longer than a month for a colonoscopy. No doubt the waiting times have been badly affected by the savage cuts in hospital funding being ruthlessly implemented by the HSE. For example, Blanchardstown hospital, which has a long list, has endured a savage reduction of 19% in its funding in the last two years. Colleagues and I have received correspondence from 23 doctors there describing the catastrophe this is causing.

These life-threatening cuts are being made while the Government continues to spend tens of billions of taxpayers' funds to salvage the European financial institutions and Irish speculators who gambled recklessly in Irish property. The EU-IMF-ECB strictures on austerity are placing people's lives under threat. The HSE claims that almost all patients who require colonoscopies and who are deemed urgent cases are tested within 28 days. This is disingenuous and highly misleading. The Irish Cancer Society points out that there is no clinical way of identifying all urgent cases since bowel cancer can be well advanced in some cases before severe symptoms are detected. The delays in providing colonoscopies are condemning to death people who depend on our public health service and cannot afford private care.

Why has the promise that nobody would wait longer than one month for a test for bowel cancer not been implemented? What is the Minister's timeframe to effect that promise? Will he give us the precise and immediate schedule showing what resources will be made available to honour the pledge made to the memory of Susie Long and in memory of all those who have tragically suffered, including many who have died, from bowel cancer?

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