Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend my colleague, Deputy Cullinane, on the work he is doing to highlight the dreadful situation whereby more than 1.3 million people are on waiting lists for some sort of health service. These people are waiting not for months but for years. I am inundated with queries from parents of children with disabilities or additional needs who are looking for assessment of needs or early intervention. The latter is key but it is not being provided.

A parent contacted me recently whose teenaged child has been called for a procedure four times since last April only for it to be cancelled on each occasion. In fact, on two occasions, he and his mother were at the hospital when they were told the procedure could not go ahead because the previous one had overrun. A man contacted me who has been in very poor health for three years. Having had gallstones removed approximately two years ago, he was told he needed his gallbladder removed but has not had a call-back from the hospital and cannot get any information. He has been left very unwell and with no end in sight. A woman told me she cannot sleep at night with the pain in her hands from carpal tunnel syndrome. She needs surgery but has been told she must wait anther four to six months, having already waited four and a half years. A person contacted me who cannot get a procedure done because there are insufficient anaesthetists in the hospital in question. Again, there is no date in sight for the procedure.

At Cavan General Hospital, there are almost 6,000 adults and more than 500 children waiting for outpatient appointments. There are more than 500 adults awaiting inpatient care, 20% of whom have been waiting in excess of 18 months. A total of 219 children are on the inpatient waiting list, with more than half of them waiting more than a year and 42% more than 18 months. The staff in the hospital are excellent but they are exhausted and overstretched. Many healthcare staff are opting to change career or to go abroad, where their pay and conditions are much better. This cannot be allowed to continue.

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