Keith Swanick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I first welcome to the House my friend, Mr. Patrick Hughes, who is in the Public Gallery today.

I wish to speak briefly on the waiting list issue. Ireland is spending more money than ever on healthcare but there is no correlation between accessibility to healthcare and the money spent. Our waiting lists have reached record levels. The Euro Health Consumer Index, EHCI, rates Ireland last when it comes to accessibility. The Government plans to stabilise the waiting lists for inpatient and outpatient appointments. Even reducing waiting times to a maximum of 18 months as planned, would still leave Ireland with the longest waiting lists in Europe. The waiting list for outpatient appointments is currently standing at 542,000 people at the end of February. The number of patients waiting for an inpatient procedure fell briefly at the end of 2018 to 70,000 people but has climbed back up to 71,200 people at the end of February. The number of patients waiting for more than three months for a procedure has grown by 4,000 since the start of this year. This is an astonishing rate of growth by anyone's standards. More than 26,000 patients had been waiting for six months for planned procedures in January 2019 while approximately 2,300 had been waiting for more than 18 months. More than 270,000 patients have been waiting for outpatient procedures for more than six months. As the EHCI explains, healthcare is basically a process industry. Smooth procedures with a minimum of pause and interruption are key to keeping the costs low. We are spending more on healthcare than ever before because the system is broken. Waiting lists do not save money; they cost money. Notwithstanding the fact that much debate these days is about Brexit, I ask the Leader to consider facilitating an urgent debate on the whole waiting list issue to come before the House in the near future.