Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Over the past six to seven years we have increased the number of staff in our hospitals and the health service generally by over 40%. We have moved from 103,000 whole-time equivalents working in the health service to over 143,000. However, we have not increased the infrastructure available to them. For instance, a lot of consultants are finding that they have only one half day per week in theatres. There is a proposal to put surgical hubs in place in a number of centres and hospitals around the country. One issue that came up at the Oireachtas health committee yesterday was that of elective hospitals for Cork and Galway. We learned that the design team has not even been appointed yet. I am concerned about this in the context of our growing population, which is up by over 40% in the last 23 years. Last year there were over 100,000 more people in the country and if that continues every year there will be 6 million people here by 2030. We will have all of the people we need employed in the health service but will not have the infrastructural capacity to deal with the work that is required to be done. Can we do something on the elective hospital issue, in terms of both structure and delivery?

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