Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. I hope he will be able to carry out a review of this issue. A case was recently brought to my attention involving an elderly lady who was awaiting a hip replacement. Although she was in extreme pain, her case was not deemed urgent or a priority. She had been waiting between one year and 18 months in that condition. In another case, a prostate patient was deemed as non-urgent. This unfortunate individual's family became extremely distressed at the extent to which he was in discomfort, screaming with pain on a daily basis. It was poor consolation to them when I forwarded them a reply suggesting that he should go to his GP. He would not have complained to me in the first instance if the situation had been the way it should have been.

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