Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last week it was announced that the new elective hospital in Cork will be based in Glanmire. That is something I welcomed. However, I was disappointed to learn that it will not be open and operational until 2027. There are tens of thousands of people in Cork on the waiting lists for elective surgery. It is not good enough that the earliest opportunity they will have to access treatment is 2027. We need action to be taken now. The delivery of the hospital must be fast-tracked because those people need to be treated right now.

There is another issue that I wish to raise with the Minister. On 31 December, the GP from the Ashdale Centre in Blarney is retiring and the clinic is closing down. That is only a symptom of the whole crisis in GP services at the moment. I am told that GP services are closing because they cannot get any cover, and GPs are not getting the support they need. GPs are operating as businesses. They should be concentrating on providing healthcare, and not worrying about profit and loss. That is something that the Minister has failed to tackle. When one looks at the number of young doctors who are leaving these shores, one sees that hundreds of them have left this year alone. What are the Government, the Minister and the HSE doing?

I will finish on this point. The funny thing is that the Fine Gael health spokesperson, Deputy Colm Burke, has stated that he regards the treatment of young doctors by the HSE as the reason they are leaving. He has also stated that the HSE fails abysmally in workforce planning, postgraduate training and retention strategies. It is on the Fine Gael website; the Minister can look it up. Fine Gael has been in power for 11 years, and Deputy Burke has said the HSE and the Department of Health need to wake up.

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