Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The next issue I wish to raise is the investment that will be required in the health service as we emerge from this crisis. I will take the opportunity to give the example of my home county of Donegal, with which we are both familiar. Letterkenny University Hospital is the sixth largest hospital in the State and a major acute hospital. Let us consider the situation before this crisis occurred. There were 17,000 people from the county on waiting lists for inpatient and outpatient procedures and appointments. If one includes Sligo hospital, it is one in eight of the county's population on waiting lists, and the lists are growing all the time. The acute stroke unit was delayed. The Minister will be familiar with the campaign for the diabetes centre of excellence. We have the numbers of type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients in Donegal so there should be a centre of excellence at that hospital. Then there is the reopening of all the beds in the short stay wards. All of these, and I could go on, were delayed because of the recruitment embargo that was in place. There is also the trolley crisis. There was an average of 19 people on trolleys in the emergency department every day over a period of years.

We must do better. I have given the example of Donegal but that is the case across the State. What are the Minister's plans or what is his vision for the next Government to have the necessary investment in nurses, doctors and beds and to move forward with the transition to Sláintecare? The vision is positive and we all subscribe to it, but where will the investment come from? What assurance can the Minister give today? People are concerned when they listen to the debates on the radio that this crisis has taken away the resources required to turn our health service. One thing we must learn from this crisis is that we can never again have the health service we had going into the crisis. We must have a very different health service. Can the Minister give a reassurance on that today?

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