Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To coin a phrase used by Fianna Fáil, " A lot done, more to do". I agree with the Senator that waiting times to be seen by consultants are unacceptable and the Minister agrees. I have asked him to highlight the point about the number of patients who do not attend for their appointments with consultants. I checked the figures for Waterford Regional Hospital. In 2011 a total of 16,000 failed to attend for their appointments. In the year to August, over 9,000 have not attended for their appointments. This means that approximately 25,000 others could have been seen, which would have made a significant dent in hospital waiting lists.