Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I welcome everyone back to the House. I am delighted the Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, is present. It is good that he is in the health portfolio. He will not be surprised if I focus in particular on Galway and HSE west. He is aware that a serious high level meeting took place yesterday with the Western Regional Health Forum. The Health Service Executive says that cutbacks in the western region will result in a deferral of elective surgery for some patients. I will ask the Minister of State many questions to make the most of my time. Currently, more than 29,000 patients are waiting for outpatient services in Galway between Merlin Park University Hospital and University College Hospital, Galway. A total of 6,500 patients are waiting for inpatient procedures. I have heard that the national waiting list is 46,000. How do we have so many patients waiting for treatment in Galway? The Minister has refused to accept the historical under funding of health services in Galway. We now know we have the busiest hospital in the country and the most dangerous hospital due to the fact we are so busy with so many people waiting. I will tell the Minister of State what I mean by "danger". I spoke today to senior management in Galway. Dr. David O'Keeffe, the clinical director and chief executive officer, communicated to me has said publicly that if the hospital must come up with the €19 million by 1 January next, patient safety will be at risk because it has already given €15 million and is cut to the bone. He is saying someone will be hurt or will die. How can the Minister of State stand over that?

There has been an overrun of €149 million since the beginning of the year, €49 million of which concerns nine counties from Donegal to Limerick. The two Galway hospitals, Merlin Park and University College Hospital Galway, have been asked to make up €19 million of that sum. It would appear a commitment was given yesterday for €4 million, which reduces the amount of €15 million, but Dr. O'Keeffe states that having to come up with that amount will have implications for patient safety.

We are learning that the HSE plans to cut 7,000 temporary staff hours per week until the end of the year, affecting 4,000 staff. I spoke to one of those staff this morning, a woman working in medical records in UCHG, who said 15 of the 21 staff there are temporary. A consultant cannot operate on anyone without a medical record and the woman told me it takes hours to get the records and co-ordinate them because it is not done electronically and she may have to access them from Merlin Park or UCHG and from different departments. Would the Minister of State or I want a procedure done on us if the medical record was not available? I would not.

My central point is that if this budget is to be met, no one will go to hospital because they will be afraid to do so except in an emergency. From the information I learned this morning, I would be afraid to go to UCHG or Merlin Park because patient safety is at risk. We are looking at the possibility of serious medical error if the availability of records on time cannot be guaranteed and if the system is bursting at the seams. We have the greatest paradox in that we have a centre of excellence in name and we now have hospital over-capacity. We have had two protest marches in Galway. A mother at one of the marches stood beside me in absolute anger and told me that a surgeon could not operate on her son because elective surgery is being deferred in Merlin Park. Coincidentally, I taught that son when he was a youngster and he is now a young man of perhaps 20. It is outrageous but the HSE west is telling the surgeons in Merlin Park that they are doing too much and working too hard and that they should slow down.

The allocation of budgets is wrong. Why does the Minister of State not consider the Fine Gael fair care policy, which will fund hospitals based on procedures done and where the patient will be a person and not a cost to the system? At present, the Minister of State sees every patient as a cost to the system, which is wrong. The very first thing we should give our people is health care, followed by education. Health is a resource for living and the Government is now threatening the health of the people.

The orthopaedic waiting lists at Merlin Park contain 4,500 people waiting for procedures on hips, joints, ankles and so on. We must consider the pain, delay and serious degeneration of joints involved. Problems are being stored up for the future which will cost the health service.

My final point concerns disability services, for which the Minister of State has complete responsibility. I know the Brothers of Charity in Galway are shaking in their boots because there is talk of a 5% cut, or €2.3 million, next yea,r with respite care being wiped out. One person telephoned me and said: "I drove my daughter to the water but I couldn't do it." That is the value of respite care to her. I ask the Minister of State to answer my questions.