Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, is assuring everyone that the health service is getting better and waiting lists are getting shorter. He assures us that patients who are waiting the longest for treatment are in fact being treated. Unfortunately, the facts and figures confirm that since taking office, the number of adults waiting for surgery in the country's hospitals has actually increased by a dramatic 40%. The latest figures show that 13,435 adults were waiting longer than six months at the end of March. This is a damning indictment of the stewardship of the Minister, Deputy Reilly. There now are more patients waiting for treatment for longer than six months, eight months and nine months. When contacted about this situation, the Department of Health has confirmed and states it is due to severe pressures on emergency departments although this is another area the Minister, Deputy Reilly, stated recently was under control and getting better.

On the ground, however, nothing could be further from the truth. For example, in the past three weeks alone, all elective surgery except for paediatrics has been postponed in Cork University Hospital. In that hospital, a daily e-mail is being sent to the wards telling them to cancel all elective surgery. This includes cardiac, orthopaedic and neurosurgery and, most shockingly, it includes cases for the treatment of cancers. Consultants inform me that it is practically impossible to plan any elective surgery as the accident and emergency department is so busy.

That hospital is finding it extremely hard to cope and while three wards are closed in that hospital alone, 84 wards are closed across the country's public hospitals. In addition, 408 patients were on trolleys yesterday in accident and emergency units across the health system. Yet again, this is an area the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, states is under control.

Is the Minister, Deputy Reilly, in denial or is he living in some fantasy land? Does the Tánaiste accept that severe issues now face the health service and that the centre within the health service can no longer hold? At present, 2,277 public beds in the health service are closed and elective surgery, even in cancer cases, is being postponed as a result.

See this speech in context