Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am not at all reassured by the Minister's statement. We have gone down this road. We have reconfigured, and Waterford Regional Hospital is the regional cancer care hospital. I get worried when I see professors drawing up reports and discussing further reconfiguration and change. The public must have faith and trust in the system. The people of South Tipperary bought into it as did the people of Kilkenny, Carlow and Wexford. We have an excellent service so why break it? We do not need any more reconfiguration. We reluctantly accepted this but we have reconfigured. We have excellent services in Waterford Regional Hospital and in the smaller hospitals such as the one in Clonmel which I represent. The system is working fine and people are reassured they have a 90 minute window of opportunity to get from a smaller hospital to the regional hospital. The Minister did not answer my question as to how 1.2 million people in Dublin have ten hospitals while we are expected to have only four. Now we are facing a situation whereby Waterford Regional Hospital might be downgraded to a district hospital. It is not at all clear. I hope when my colleagues meet the Minister that he will listen to them and engage with the elected representatives rather than with professors doing reports and reconfiguration by faceless officials.

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