Camillus Glynn (Fianna Fail)

Since coming into office, the largest ever expansion in health funding has been accompanied by unprecedented work on planning comprehensively for the future. Each day tens of thousands of people use the health service and receive the highest quality care. A survey carried out in 2002 by the Irish Society for Quality and Safety in Health Care tested the attitudes of 1,800 patients who had been through the acute system. The results indicated that 92.9% were satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of care they received.

We are all aware of the pressure on accident and emergency departments, including the unreasonable waiting lists and lack of essential support services. However, the people do not want a knee-jerk reaction; a quick fix is no good.