Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In section 5 on page 60 of A Programme for a Partnership Government dealing with health, there is a heading that reads "Improving Waiting Times for Hospital Procedures". There are all sorts of commitments given in that particular section.

Today, we learn that over 614,000 are on hospital waiting lists and the figure is up 11,460 since January. These patients are waiting for inpatient and day care procedures as well as outpatient appointments. We are informed that the HSE is preparing waiting list action plans for 2017 and that the Minister is currently reviewing the draft plans. The Minister should start reviewing them quickly because 2017 is well under way. Behind the statistics there is utter anxiety and pain for many ill people. The situation is obviously getting worse. The population is ageing and there is increasing demand for health services, but all of this could have been predicted. Does the Tánaiste agree that more action is now urgently required to deal with this escalating problem?

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