James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Waiting lists are now the worst ever. There are 707,000 people on waiting lists for medical procedures, 511,000 on outpatient lists, 147,000 waiting for over 12 months and almost 80,000 waiting for over 18 months. We have the worst waiting times in Europe for specialist treatment. We have a target of 18 months and the targets are failing. We are the second worst for value for money. These lists are serious, dangerous and very real. They include very serious cardiac and neurosurgery procedures, children with debilitating pain and spinal deformations and children who are self-harming and suicidal. General practitioners, GPs, are leaving. Nurses are lining up at the airport to get out. Psychiatrists are resigning in a last, desperate protest to highlight the Government's failure in our child mental health services and nobody is listening. The Government is in its eighth year of power yet still behaves as rubberneckers, looking on at a car crash, shaking its head and saying that this is awful, when in fact it is responsible. There has been no vision, no plan and no responsibility. The Government has had eight years. Why should anybody trust it to give it any more?

I want to give one example, of a lady who is 79 years of age. In November 2016, she underwent a procedure relating to her gallbladder which resulted in perforated bile ducts. As a temporary measure, a drain was put in her side. Some 20 months later, waiting for corrective surgery, the drain remains in place. Every Monday, she attends her local GP to make sure it is okay and every six weeks, she attends a hospital appointment where nurses and doctors query why the temporary measure is still present. This lady is in chronic pain, on a specialised diet and she cannot get help. There is a 34 month waiting list for child psychology in my county and no emergency appointments are available. This is unacceptable and needs to be addressed.

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