David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

-----which are "leave things as they are". This is the policy being put forward by Fianna Fáil, which is not good enough. We have left things as they are for so long and ended up with a two-tier, unequal health service which is not delivering for people. The real victims are the sick children who are without medical cards, older people who are left without home help and adequate supports, the patients left on hospital trolleys and all those waiting on long waiting lists. We have 8,500 patients in Waterford who have been waiting longer than 15 months to see a consultant. Figures last week showed that 495,000 patients in the State are waiting for hospital appointments. Again, this has been under the Minister's watch. We lost 300 staff in University Hospital Waterford since the Minister's Government took office. Many of them are nurses and junior doctors as well as support staff. Surgical theatre space was taken from the hospital as well as wards and beds closed. The impact of all that is that people are waiting for longer for treatment.

Today I got an e-mail from a constituent who was in chronic pain and had a hip injury seen to in 2011. He went to a private clinic in 2012 because he could not wait any longer to get assessed. He was then referred back to University Hospital Waterford because he did not have private health insurance. In 2013, he eventually saw an orthopaedic consultant at University Hospital Waterford, but he was not treated. He was referred to St. James's Hospital in Dublin. It was only in June 2015 that he was put on its waiting list. He said at the end of his e-mail that the whole ordeal has left him depressed, stressed and unable to support his wife and two children because he is out of work. There are many practical examples which we can give as well as human stories we can bring to this Chamber today. Will the Minister outline his vision for health care because I do not see it?

My final point is a question to the Minister. There has been an awful lot of talk about the need for 24/7 emergency cardiology care at University Hospital Waterford. We do need it; it is very important. However, we had an extraordinary claim from an Independent Deputy in Waterford over the past number of weeks who claimed that, at a meeting with the Minister and one of his senior officials, the senior official said to him - this was relayed to the people of Waterford - that the reason we are not getting the 24/7 emergency care had nothing to do with medical need but concerned hospital budgets in Cork and Dublin. Will the Minister clarify that for the people of Waterford today?

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