David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We all know the majority of cases are rescheduled. The problem is that people end up waiting longer. By cancelling elective procedures because of pressures in accident and emergency departments, we end up just shifting the problem from one part of the health service to another. I respect the fact that there is an industrial relations dispute, but it is extraordinary that the Minister, the Department and the HSE, at a senior level, are not being given information on basic data like the number of hospital cancellations. There is lots more information I have sought that we cannot get. My message to the Minister is to resolve that industrial relations dispute by engaging with Fórsa. It is not tenable to be in the position where basic information cannot be delivered to the Opposition or the Minister for Health.

While I am talking about the cancellation of elective procedures, I put it to the Minister that there is an awful lot of foot dragging with the elective-only hospitals. We have not even identified sites in Dublin yet, years after the delivery of those hospitals was promised. We are a long way away from delivering them in Cork and Galway. That will be the real solution to the problem of elective procedures being cancelled.

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