Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This debate is another example of why this country needs to get Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael out of government fast. The deliberate underfunding of the health service, which is exactly what these parties have done, makes no sense. It is bad for patients and staff and will cost us more in the long term. We know the consequences of that because the health professionals are telling us day in, day out. Delayed diagnoses and treatment means worse outcomes for patients. Let us call it what it is. It means people will die as a result of Government decisions to deliberately underfund our health service. The Minister does this with his eyes wide open, knowing that our health system is creaking and under massive pressure regarding resources and capacity, that our waiting lists have never been longer and that people are lying in corridors and on chairs and trolleys for hours on end and, in some cases, for days.

What do we have? We have a Minister who comes before us and tells us he is deliberately going to underfund the health service, as we have heard from the head of the HSE and the Secretary General of his Department. What does this mean for patients? It means more pain, more misery, and more delays. It means in my county of Donegal that Letterkenny University Hospital is facing into a further difficult time. Job offers have already been withdrawn and recruitment has been stopped for thousands of front-line service posts right across the State. In the first ten months of this year, 4,633 patients were admitted to Letterkenny University Hospital without access to a bed. That 400% increase in the past ten years means 4,500 people could not get a bed in Letterkenny hospital in the first ten months of the year. What does the Minister do? He deliberately underfunds the health service, forcing the HSE to introduce a recruitment embargo. What this means is that the two radiologists we have will have to continue just to put up with the way things are because there are five posts unfilled and now there is a recruitment embargo. The hospital has one endocrinologist for diabetes, the lowest number in the State. What happens? We have a recruitment embargo. We have lost our dermatology service in Letterkenny hospital with no chance of getting it back because the Minister has ensured there is a recruitment embargo. He has thrown in the towel on health. He has given up on the health service and on the people who rely on it. It is about time the people finally got their chance to give up on this Government and put it out of office.

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