David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We need more capacity but the problem is that in the budget just gone, apart from beds that were not delivered from the previous budget, there were no additional inpatient beds provided. What additional beds will be put in this year to ensure that next year those hospitals will have the capacity? The reality is that beyond what was previously committed to, none will be added.

On hospitals and variations, in the same figures I got for December, in University Hospital Waterford the average time patients were waiting for admission to a bed was cut by four hours. Riddle me that. This was a massive drop, which is really positive but in other hospitals there are massive increases. Resources and capacity are problems but there is also the issue of how we are managing patients in hospitals, which the Minister has recognised. We have to deal with that issue, therefore. I go back to University Hospital Galway, Cork University Hospital, some of the major hospitals in Dublin, and University Hospital Limerick.

The waiting times are too high. It is the same hospitals over and over again. There are capacity issues in those hospitals and issues about how we are managing patients and patient flow. We must deal with it. Why is Waterford Hospital doing it so well and why are other hospitals not? No one has been able to answer that question for me.

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