Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy McDonald again raised the issue of Ava Cahill and the orthopaedic situation. Government is responsible overall for the delivery of healthcare. The point I was making earlier was that the funding has been allocated. A figure of €5 million is not an issue. I want to make that clear. Since 2018, which was before I came into office, to be fair, an extra €9 million had been allocated each year to the HSE specifically for the funding of orthopaedic services. This additional funding supported the recruitment of approximately 60 extra staff in 2018 and 2019 to enable the expansion of paediatric orthopaedic services.

Improving capacity to allow for additional activity is the key enabler to improve waiting times. Proposals by the HSE under the waiting list action plan are for funding to extend theatre capacity in Crumlin and in Temple Street. There has been additional theatre capacity at the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh since April 2021 for day case surgery. CHI has advised that this should result in a positive impact in reducing long waiting time for general orthopaedics, in addition to consequential capacity gains for scoliosis patients.

In 2022, CHI was planning to undertake a range of inpatient day case and outpatient orthopaedic appointments in Cappagh. There is also planning for additional orthopaedic scoliosis theatre sessions using private facilities that were supported to HSE procurement agreements. Huge funding has been provided to the health service, both in 2020 during Covid-19 and in 2021, and I mean non-Covid-19 health expenditures. There was a €600 million allocation given very early in the winter of last year with a view to ensuring that capacity would be increased right along the line.

We have said repeatedly to the health service operators that where they can get capacity quickly, whether this is theatre capacity or bed capacity, please go and do so. We said the same for recruiting staff. A record number of staff was recruited last year because of that extra funding. This figure was less than they said they were hoping to recruit. The health service had resources to recruit more last year. However, because there is obviously a huge demand on key positions and so on, they were not in the position to recruit as many as they would have liked to. Yet, they still managed to recruit a record number in any one year. Likewise, the same happened in 2020.

That said, as far as I am concerned, anything that can be done to make sure that Ava Cahill gets her operation and that other children are not waiting in an inordinate length of time has to be the priority. It is not about funding. They need to get the capacity in place so that they can do whatever can be done in the shortest possible term to get it done.

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