Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Irish Timesreports that 535,000 people were on public hospital waiting lists last month. In one hospital alone in Cork city, Cork University Hospital, 26,000 people are on waiting lists. Incredibly, the number of people on hospital waiting lists has increased by 27,000 since the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, took the reigns in the Department six months ago.

TheIrish Examinerreports this morning that 16 people have died from suspected suicides in the Cork region in the past two weeks. Conor Cusack has called for the establishment of well-being centres operating on a 24-7 basis. As the previous speaker noted, we are falling well short of meeting the targets set in A Vision for Change, the ten-year strategy for mental health which runs until the end of 2016. An additional allocation of a mere €15 million has been provided for mental health this year when much more is needed.

According to trolley watch, which is operated by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, 25 people are on trolleys in Cork University Hospital today and the number of people on trolleys at the hospital earlier this week was the highest in the country. Contrary to the figures provided by the Taoiseach, trolley watch's figures show there are 464 persons on trolleys or in overflow wards in hospitals today. This is caused in significant measure by the understaffing crisis in the health service, which is unable to retain nurses.

All this points towards the need for a national health service which would provide health care free at the point of use in a single tier, universal system. What proposal does the Cabinet committee have for dealing with the multiple crises in the health service?

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