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

The Minister stated that he was due to visit the hospital shortly. Will he put these figures to its management? Will he ask management to explain such a hike in the numbers? There are 30,992 people awaiting outpatient consultations, an increase of 16% since last December. Why is that? It would be remiss of me not to ask the Minister whether he will meet the consultants in Waterford and the rest of the south east and whether he will take issue with the finding of the Herity report on the second cath lab, a finding that is debated in our part of the country. Even the Minister of State is having problems with it. That cath lab is needed, given the concerns about the provision of a 24-seven service with the current lab. This is my priority. Will the Minister undertake to meet these people? There were problems with the risk assessment. The Herity report cited a risk rating of 16 out of 25 whereas the consultants and clinicians referred to a score of 20. The south east's catchment area has a population of approximately 500,000 people, but the Herity report claimed that it was only 220,000. There are contradictions. Will the Minister meet the consultants about this issue when visiting the hospital?

See this speech in context