Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Waiting lists are at a record high. It is all well and good to have a winter plan but we are still waiting for the detail of that plan and what will happen in each of our hospitals around the country. It is difficult to see how our hospitals will cope this winter as some are already struggling and it is still only September and we are facing into a second wave of Covid-19.

At the last Leaders' Questions session I contributed to in July, I spoke about a number of practical measures that could be taken to relieve this pressure.

Patients are also waiting longer for tests. Since April, during a period when only those who are really concerned with their health have gone to the doctor, 38 people have been added every single day to the waiting list for CT scans, MRI scans and other tests. These people are waiting in constant pain. Because of their delayed diagnosis, many will have very poor medical outcomes. We need proactive measures aimed at treating patients as efficiently as possible and we can do this by taking some simple actions.

As an example, I refer to the CT scanner at Portiuncula University Hospital in Ballinasloe, which has been out of action for 144 hours this month alone. Despite this being the tenth time that it has broken down in the past 18 operational months, the HSE has confirmed that it will not be replaced until some time in 2022. It is 63rd on the list for replacement, even though it has been out of warranty sine 2017. Where is the logic in that? These machines are breaking down in hospitals throughout the country. This impacts on our waiting lists and adds to the overcrowding in emergency departments. A perverse example of what is wrong with our health service is provided by a CT scanner just down the road in Roscommon University Hospital. It can cater for many more patients but uses a different software system from the one in Ballinasloe. This is despite the fact that for the past eight and a half years both hospitals have been meant to be working together closely as part of the same hospital group. Is it not about time we had a small bit of joined-up thinking and started to get the basic things right?

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