John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)

The response to what the Minister has said is coming from the staff of Waterford Regional Hospital, some of whom have publicly stated that the present situation is untenable. The problem must be addressed. I also understand data for differential waiting times for medical card and privately insured patients are not collected annually. The Minister spoke about tracking trends, but one cannot track them. Despite the lack of disaggregated data for waiting times, does the Minister accept that we would not find too many private patients who have been waiting for as long as public patients?

See this speech in context