Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know of a young woman in intense pain who has lost a stone in weight rapidly in the past month. She is vomiting and spent ten hours in the emergency department the night before last and was sent home at 8 a.m. She knows what her problem is. She went to a private hospital and got a diagnosis for the problem; she could afford €220. She cannot afford the €8,000 to €10,000 for the operation.

This young woman presented herself to the emergency department and was simply told to come back again in three weeks. There is no guarantee she will even be admitted in three weeks. It is wrong. At a fundamental level beds are needed. The HSE and our system are putting this young mother - and probably many more - through hoops. She is otherwise a healthy woman and needs a procedure that she has had verified in a private hospital but she cannot afford to have it. That shows the private-public sector divide that still exists. There is not universal health care when people need it. Money is not following the need. In addition, she could end up being treated by the same consultant in the public hospital as treated her in the private hospital.

What has our great Minister for Health achieved? He takes one hospital and makes an example of it and says he will tackle this by coming up with a model that works and will then replicate it. Until he decides to come out of his Department, drills down, asks why it is happening and looks at how to bring it to a solution, I do not believe anybody will solve this problem. I find this young woman's story very moving.