asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of adults on hospital waiting lists for longer than 12 months; the number of children waiting longer than six months; and the steps, if any, he will take to deal with this crisis. [24139/98]
Priority Questions. - Hospital Waiting Lists.
The number of adults on hospital waiting lists for more than 12 months on 30 June 1998 was 12,314 and the number of children waiting for more than six months was 2,413. The remaining persons on public in-patient waiting lists were waiting for less than 12 months and six months, respectively. I am committed to taking all appropriate steps to addressing both waiting lists and waiting times. Since taking office I have taken a number of initiatives in the operation of the waiting list initiative.
In addition to these steps, I established a review group on the waiting list initiative, which was the first major formal analysis of the area since the initiative was launched in 1993. I received the report and we had a debate in the House on this matter. I have since been preparing proposals for its implementation.
I will shortly bring these proposals to Government, after which I will announce full details of how I intend to proceed. I assure Deputies that I am committed to implementing the report of the review group in a planned and structured way. The report emphasises that there are no simple solutions in this area and that the problems arising must be addressed far beyond the acute hospital system alone. I will ensure that all of the steps taken to deal with waiting lists and waiting times are implemented in a structured and co-ordinated fashion right across the health services.
I will be happy to provide full information to this House when the Government has taken decisions in this area.
Certainly the evidence to date would indicate a decidedly hands off approach by the Minister in dealing with the waiting lists crisis. He outlined a number of short-term steps which he intended to take some time ago. Will he outline the steps he has taken on foot of the review group's report on the waiting list crisis? He spoke of appropriate steps. What has he actually done? Furthermore, will he let us know when he intends to publish the review group's report?
An implementation team in the Department has been working on a memorandum for Government. It is drawing up the resource allocations which will be required to deal with the issues raised. It will deal across the hospital services, not just the acute hospital services with the need to provide more resources so that there is a greater throughput through the surgical beds' system. That proposal is before Government and it will be coming before Government again next week. As soon as decisions are taken which will allow me to proceed with an implementation phase of that review group's report, I will make those decisions public and make public the review group report.
Does the Minister accept that it is nonsense to talk about trying to achieve a greater throughput when hospital beds are being closed? In addition, those which are open are being used inappropriately. Will he accept that the priority now is to make all possible hospital beds available in order that progress can be made on the waiting lists?
This year resources were increased by 50 per cent. The previous Administration reduced the allocations under the waiting lists initiative which saw the waiting lists rise by one third in its tenure. With increased resources, we were able to do 15,000 procedures this year which was an increase of more than 5,000 compared to the previous Minister's performance in 1997 with the allocation which he made available.
The temporary bed closures, which have been a feature of the health system since I came into public life, is part of the bed management system which is the operational responsibility of managers who must ensure that they work to their budgets. They represent 2.5 per cent of the total number of beds available.
The real issue here is to make sure that we bring forward a programme which will bring us results and achieve greater throughput. One of the main ways of doing that is to attack this problem on all fronts and not expect that putting resources into the acute hospital sector alone will provide a panacea for the problem. That will not solve the problem on its own.
What is the Minister doing about it?
A memorandum being considered by Government will provide for a greater level of resources across a whole range of areas. This will compare favourably with what was done by the former Minister.
The Minister's reply is no consolation to the 34,000 people who are on hospital waiting lists. Will the Minister accept that one of the serious underlying problems in relation to hospital waiting lists is that our hospital services are seriously under resourced? Does he accept the figures bear that out? The figures show that as a percentage of GDP our health spending is at the lower end of the EU scale. Does he believe that funding difficulty will have to be addressed as a matter of urgency?
One could argue for more health resources on a whole range of criteria, including that referred to by the Deputy. Since coming to office we have attained increases in expenditure in this Department, far in excess of what my colleagues in other Departments have to accept, because of the priority being accorded to the development of the health services by this Government. There will always be an argument for increased resources for the health services, no matter what Government is in office. Unless we are prepared to submit to the budgetary disciplines the same as other Departments, these health agencies cannot plan for the improvements which the Deputy, I and others in the House seek. As regards dealing with some of the outstanding problems, if people on the other side propose to throw budgetary discipline out the window and continue to provide funds regardless of how we plan our services, clearly that will not solve the problem either.