Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

People matter. The motion is about reform and having a plan for the health service. However, on reading it, one would not know reconfiguration is taking place. Reconfiguration involves the expansion of some services and the opening of new services and facilities, a point cynically not made in the motion which is an attempt from some quarters of the Opposition to exploit people's fears in seeking a quick and cheap headline. We need to take a reasonable approach to the health service and use proper language. At the very least, we must recognise that we have a Minister for Health who is pioneering and wants to see change. I am confident that at the end of his tenure in office we will have a health system that will be a changed model from the one we inherited. The decision by the Health Service Executive to reconfigure health services in Cork city was made in November 2009, one to which my constituency colleagues, the former Minister, Deputy Martin, and the former Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, acquiesced. Listening to the comments of the former Minister, Deputy Martin, one would imagine he was never in government or that he had abandoned the concept of collective Cabinet responsibility. Since the HSE announced its reconfiguration plans for Cork city, many of my colleagues and I have engaged with it. We have arranged meetings with HSE managers and listened to them. Many of us expressed concern about the proposed changes and how they were being communicated. I have been told by HSE management in Cork that there will be an independent assessment of the new services to determine if they are delivering improved health care.

The motion refers to the closure of the accident and emergency department at the Victoria South Infirmary Hospital. What it does not do is mention is the opening in December of an acute medical unit in Cork University Hospital, the opening in 2012 of a surgical assessment unit in the same hospital, the opening of an urgent care centre at St. Mary's Orthopaedic Hospital, the opening in December of a regional pain management service at the Victoria South Infirmary Hospital, the doubling of orthopaedic surgery capacity at Cork University Hospital and the return to that hospital of paediatric orthopaedic surgery services, which service was abolished by the previous Government.

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