Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the response. She has reiterated what I told her about the issue around aortic stenosis and the medical complexities involved. She then mentioned how the Government funds some of the procedures and how there is limited funding for them. Finally, she provided a summary from some manager about what they are apparently doing to address the numbers on waiting list numbers, which have rocketed this year. She did not address the specific question around these TAVI procedures at the Mater Hospital. That was all management lingo. She spoke about the 2017 Estimates. That will do nothing for the 18 patients who are waiting today for this procedure. They do not have the six months to the end of the year to survive. That is being realistic about it. She has given no commitment to address the current chronic issue of not funding the piece of equipment needed.

Let me give an example. There is one patient in my constituency who has been in the Mater Hospital for a month. The cost of a bed is €1,000 per day. He is going to be there for more than two months. That could equate to a cost of €60,000 to the State. The valve costs €22,000 and there are negligible staff costs because we already fund them. The problem we have in this health service is that we see the bed capacity issue as a fixed cost. He can stay in the bed. Managers are not necessarily concerned with his medical outcome because if he gets the clinical outcome and procedure, someone else will replace him.

There is no incentive within management to see clinical progress for patients and to cut the waiting list. They do not care whether he is in the bed any longer, because they have left him there and have focused on the estimates and the costs. The clinical outcome could be much improved for him and for others if they were given the valve and the procedure. They then would be discharged from the beds for the benefit of someone else. Instead, he is being left in the bed, which is a cost to the State, to the detriment of his health and to the detriment of the health service overall. The 2017 Estimates and the management lingo about what the Government is doing regarding action plans about waiting times is nonsense. It will not address this specific issue in the Mater Hospital, which is rigid and irrational management procedure regarding the funding of a basic piece of equipment when all the additional costs already are being funded. The Government must tackle management to stop this and I urge the Minister of State to do it now.

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