Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the orthopaedic waiting lists in the Galway region. Last Monday, a young man came to my office. He is 27 years old and is married with two children. He has been working, his wife is working and they have a mortgage. Unfortunately, he had an accident and he is waiting for treatment. He tried to continue to work but he had to give up the work five weeks ago. He was getting some painkillers for the pain. He was told when he was getting the injections that they would last up to six months. The pain left him for five and a half weeks. The prospect before him is 18 months waiting for an assessment. Then he will have to wait another four years for surgery. That is what he has been told by the hospital. This young man cannot lift his children, he cannot drive and he can hardly walk. That is his current position. He is relying on his mother to bring him to the doctor and relies on his father to help around the house. He has a mortgage to pay, which he is struggling to do. This is not somebody who is looking for a handout or for something soft.

This is what is happening with the services in the orthopaedic unit in Galway. There are massive delays. When Covid-19 started, I remember the Tánaiste coming down the steps from Government Buildings to address the nation and setting aside all rules and regulations to make sure we dealt with it. Today, the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, need to come down those steps again and tell us how we are going to address our fractured health system.

The system was creaking before Covid but it has been further scarred by the effects of the pandemic. It is important that we get the health service right. We need infrastructure, additional beds, additional staff - when I say "staff" I mean nurses - and functioning accident and emergency units. We also need to put in place the necessary services our people deserve. We need to dispense with these codes for public procurement and appraisals for every project we have to undertake. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, is in the Chamber. He has to take on board the fact that we cannot continue with the same processes, while the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, who is sitting beside him, is trying to improve services. We need to take immediate, emergency, essential actions to make sure that whatever projects we have in place to improve our infrastructure and capacity are done rather than spending years looking at them.

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