Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Irish Cancer Society is holding its 30th national fundraising Daffodil Day event on Friday. One might ask what its relevance is. Several national newspapers over the weekend reported that a senior consultant in oncology had expressed serious concerns about the shortage of beds and lack of consultants to deal with patients with cancer. It is an absolute disgrace.According to this eminent surgeon, cancer patients are now having their surgeries cancelled in significant numbers as hospitals struggle to cope with the lack and shortage of beds. I believe this message was conveyed to the Minister for Health by a delegation of top doctors from the Irish Hospital Consultants Association at a meeting in recent days. It issued a stark warning to him and I presume he is taking on board its concerns. The doctors are seriously concerned and will now have to step up a campaign to bring the public with them to make this a major political issue. In a week when we are rightly out fund-raising to support the work of the Irish Cancer Society, which most people are happy to do, consultants in oncology face desperate circumstances in the treatment of their patients.

Will the Minister for Health be brought to the House as soon as possible to address a number of key issues? How does he intend to reduce the number of patients waiting for hospital admissions? How will he open additional hospital beds, as agreed in the programme for Government? How will he address the issues of staffing and resources, particularly in the area of oncology, in respect of which the consultants have expressed serious concern and about which they have written to a number of parliamentarians? How will he deal with the shortage of staff?

Having discussed this with a number of consultants today, I am reliably informed that there were 400 full-time hospital consultant posts unfilled. The Minister needs to address that. We have a crisis in the health services. I am not in the business of knocking people and I want to hear how we are going to have answers and solutions to address this. It is very important to have the Minister in the House as soon as practicable and possible to discuss this specific issue.