Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There has been a lot of debate in recent times about the state of our health services, with growing waiting lists, emergency department overcrowding and more. What may be missed in the middle of all of this talk is by how much services in the western and north-western part of Ireland lag behind those in the rest of the country. A capacity review carried out by the Saolta University Health Care Group in 2019 found that almost two thirds, or 64%, of the infrastructure at the region's biggest hospital, University Hospital Galway, UHG, was classified as either not satisfactory or unacceptable. In the case of its sister hospital at Merlin Park in the city, the figure increased to a shocking 95%. During 2022, waiting lists for inpatient and outpatient pain relief treatment in Galway increased by 75%, while the rest of the country only saw a tiny increase of just 1% in such waiting lists. The numbers in Galway waiting for 18 months or more, many in severe pain, are now more than three times greater than this time last year, while the rates in the rest of the country dropped by almost one fifth. In specialties such as orthopaedics, the experience of the patients in Galway falls well short of what is happening in the rest of the country.

The west of Ireland currently has the lowest survival rate in Ireland for breast and lung cancer. This is in a country that had the highest rates of cancer in the EU 27 in 2020. Experts in the field point out that late diagnosis leads to poorer patient outcomes. The facilities for the treatment of cancer in Galway are not fit for purpose. Cancer patients are competing with elective and emergency patients for vital life-saving treatment. I welcome the recent announcement that a new cancer care centre at UHG is to be included in the HSE's national service plan this year. I want to compliment Professor Michael Kerin for his excellent work on this project and I hope it will be progressed as a matter of urgency. We need similarly urgent action to be taken in relation to the rest of the health services in Galway and the west. At the very least, we must bring them up to a standard that is fit for purpose. The west is starved of proper services and I am calling for a task force to look at what is going wrong with the health services in the region and what needs to be done to improve them.

The Taoiseach may point out that a new elective hospital is to be built on the grounds of Merlin Park University Hospital in Galway but how long will it take for that to become a reality? Realistically, it could take 15 years or more, given that the recently-opened radiotherapy unit in Galway took over 14 years to deliver. There are many instances in the provision of health services where Galway and the west are falling well behind the rest of the country. What are the Government's plans to improve the delivery of healthcare to the people of Galway and the west of Ireland to bring it up to an acceptable standard? Will the Taoiseach ensure that proper resources are put in place?

See this speech in context