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

I am not disputing that the Government is spending money - this year we will spend €40,000 every single minute on the health service - but just throwing money at our waiting lists does not work within the health service. We need to see structural reform. For example, take the rapid access haematuria clinic - the blood and urine clinic - at Roscommon University Hospital, where 10% of referred patients have been diagnosed with cancer. It treats 70% of patients in one visit and 100% of patients are seen within the 28-day target time for urgent cases, yet this service has not been rolled out anywhere else. There are many cases of good practice in the health service but these never get main-streamed because it clashes with someone else's agenda. This has to stop.

There is something fundamentally wrong when it is easier to spend money on treating patients in private hospitals than on supporting innovation in public hospitals, which could make a real difference in the long term to waiting lists.

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