Will the Minister not accept that the facts are clear? An elderly patient, in her 70s, who was suffering from gangrene in both feet and was being cared for mainly by members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, was waiting without success to get access to a hospital. Her GP was also frustrated in trying to ensure that she received the hospital care she needed. It was only when the Society of St. Vincent de Paul offered to pay for a private bed that this elderly woman was able to get access to hospital. Those are the facts and the Minister must accept that. There is no need to prolong judgment on the case although I look forward to receiving the further information promised by the Minister.
Would he not accept that this is another graphic example of the inequality running through the hospital care system that prevents public patients accessing vital treatment while private patients can access it without difficulty? This Government has been in power for three years and has had control of unprecedented financial resources yet the Minister with responsibility for health states that he is now starting out and recognising that there is a problem with inequality. As we say in our document, it is a system based on apartheid.
Does the Minister not accept that this example of an elderly patient being denied care, as a result of which the Society of St. Vincent de Paul had to offer to pay privately for that care, is not unique? The society on occasion has to pay privately for scans, for example, to give its clients access to the hospital facilities to which they have an entitlement. The Minister must try harder than simply informing the House that at some future date, in never-never land, this Government will address the core fundamental inequity at the heart of our hospital system.
It has been required action by this Government from the day it took office and no action has been delivered. The Minister does not seem to know how to deal with the problem, he is throwing money at it but it is making no difference. The waiting lists have not been reduced significantly and this poor elderly person, unfortunately, is probably not unique in terms of the experience that has been the lot of public patients and will continue to be as long as this Government procrastinates and proves itself incapable of meeting a task.