Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The health insurance issue is scandalous to say the least. I speak to people who want to use health insurance and the greatest issue is that the cost prevents them from doing so. Recently, people have been contacting my office to say there have been several increases that are putting health insurance out of the reach of the ordinary person. This is an issue that needs to be addressed because we cannot have everybody in the medical card system. People try to put some money aside for health insurance but the cost is getting out of hand.

The entire health system is in trouble. I know people who have health insurance but still cannot access specialists. This week, my office is trying to access a specialist for a very sick child in west Cork but the earliest appointment for a paediatric gastroenterologist is at the end of March. The child is extremely ill, can barely get out of bed with pain, cannot go to school and cannot go about daily life in the same way as other children. The family cannot get an appointment with a paediatric gastroenterologist because there are only five in the country. The earliest appointment is 25 March. It is outrageous. Today, I was in contact with doctors in Germany to see whether we can do something. This is the problem with the system in this country. We are exporting all of our problems. We have been looking to Northern Ireland and everywhere and anywhere as we frantically try to find a specialist that could look after this child and give her some relief coming up to Christmas. God knows the stress it must be causing to her family because we are stressed about it. Our hearts and souls go into someone, especially a young person, and we try our living best to make life somewhat easier. I would appreciate if the Minister of State could intervene and perhaps I can speak to him afterwards or he can contact me. I would like to look after this person.

Private health insurance is in crisis. We also have issues with Covid. Someone rang me recently who drove for two hours to Cork city to get a Covid test carried out but the person was having a procedure done in Bantry General Hospital. The Covid test should have been carried out in Bantry General Hospital rather than the person having to make a two-hour journey to Cork and a two-hour journey back. It took almost a day to get a Covid test and then the person went to Bantry General Hospital for a minor procedure. We are afraid to use local smaller hospitals that can deliver so much.

Quite a few people in west Cork who have fallen ill have been told when the ambulance arrived that they are being taken not to Bantry General Hospital but to Cork. They are then left in the ambulance outside Cork University Hospital, which cannot cope. That is not the fault of staff at the hospital, which just cannot cope with the number of people who go there, while we have a beautiful hospital in Bantry that serves a massive population. People told me when I was canvassing out east along Bandon that they go to Bantry General Hospital and not to Cork University Hospital, CUH, because they get looked after by the excellent staff there.

There is nothing wrong with the staff in Cork University Hospital but they cannot cope with the demand. We tend to look as if we would shut all these smaller hospitals. We do not give them the resources they need or provide ambulance services. It is nicely done behind the scenes, and people say, “Oh, CUH is actually much better than Bantry General”. It is a closure. It is a nice way of closing the door. However, we are keeping a very close eye on what is going on.

People are suffering. Regardless of whether they have health insurance or not, they cannot get cataract operations. Bus 63 has just come back into Cork this evening and bus 62 went up on Sunday, and there are another 28 people who have had their eyesight saved. That procedure should be taking place in Cork. However, the worry now is that, given the fact it is not happening enough to get some solution, they are going to Northern Ireland. From what I gather, the Government is lying idly by, and is going to put in a scheme that is not going to work. All it has to do is replace the scheme that is there with a new scheme that operates across the Border into Belfast. I would appreciate if the Minister would work on that.

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