Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Back in June, I raised the issue of outpatient appointments at Waterford University Hospital, which is the closest hospital for many people in south Kilkenny. At that time, I was highlighting the fact that 10,000 were waiting more than a year for an appointment. During June - I must praise someone for this - that dropped by a remarkable 6,000 plus at a rate of around 300 per day. Whether that was due to people actually getting appointments, or simply resulted from a re-checking of the list, I do not know, but it was welcome. Maybe it was a case that I raised it here or maybe something happened and we got some work on it. However, there are still 855 waiting for more than 18 months and I hope progress is made on that.

Today I want to raise the inpatient-day case list in Waterford. As the Minister of State knows, Waterford University Hospital is part of the South/South West Hospitals Group. A lot of people were not happy with this, as the Minister of State also knows, but that is how it happened.

New figures published by the National Treatment Purchase Fund for August 2015 indicate that the number of people on the inpatient-day case waiting list now stands at 4,409 in Waterford University Hospital. This is the highest figure in the South/South West Hospitals Group. It represents almost half the numbers waiting in that group. This also represents an increase of more than 80% in Waterford since August 2013. For the group at large, there has been an increase of 20.17% over the past two years. The percentage increase in Waterford is around four times the rate for the group as a whole and about double the national average increase.

The increase in Waterford means that its share of the group total has risen from just 32% to 45% since August 2013, when the Waterford total stood at 2,433 out of 7,688 patients. By contrast, Cork University Hospital, which had a higher number of inpatient-day cases than Waterford in 2013 - 2,576 out of 7,688 - now stands at 1,447 out of a group total of 9,360, just over 15% of the total. Over the past two years, a situation has developed whereby Waterford, which previously had fewer people on its inpatient-day case waiting list, now has three times as many as Cork University Hospital. Why is this happening? Why is Waterford doing so much worse in the group?

As Waterford University Hospital represents the catchment areas of Counties Kilkenny, Wexford, Carlow, south Tipperary and Waterford, it is a very important regional hospital. Why have the numbers quadrupled? This is a serious situation and we need to do something about. I ask that the Minister for Health investigates this immediately and puts in the man power and resources we need in order to reduce the list. We want for Waterford what has happened at Cork University Hospital. I ask the Minister of State to give me some guarantees in his reply.

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