Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I am very glad of this opportunity to contribute to the debate. I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Tim O'Malley, and also congratulate the Minister, Deputy Martin, on his address to the Seanad.

The Minister was modest in his quotation from the Irish Society for Quality in Healthcare survey. In the correspondence I received there was a reference to 92.9% of respondents being satisfied or very satisfied with the overall quality of care they received during their stay in hospital. Also, 85.5% of respondents reported being satisfied or very satisfied with the standard of services they received in the accident and emergency department. With regard to communication with doctors, 90% of respondents indicated that the explanations given to them by doctors about their condition or treatment were very easy or fairly easy to understand. That is something we do not hear much about in the media.

We know from the members of the Western Health Board and from conferences such as that held in Kilkenny in March that there is much pressure on hospitals and on their staff. That was pointed out very clearly in Kilkenny by the professionals who spoke there and talked about the extra hospital activity. One theme running through the conference was that they wished to see a single waiting list for public and private patients and also new contracts for consultants.