asked the Minister for Health if, having regard to the very long hours that sick and injured persons have to wait for attention in the out-patient departments of Dublin hospitals, he will endeavour with the co-operation of the medical profession and hospital authorities to devise a system which will obviate delays in future.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Attention for Hospital Out-Patients.
2.
Mr. Ryan
Broadly, outpatient departments may be sub-divided into two kinds, casualty departments and specialised clinics. Only the latter are operated under the Health Acts and are, presumably, those the Deputy has in mind.
So far as the Dublin hospitals are concerned, the specialist clinics operated under the Health Acts are arranged between the health authority and the hospitals concerned and the functions of the Minister for Health in relation to them are limited to approving the financial arrangements. The formulation of a system such as the Deputy suggests is a matter for discussion between the authorities of each hospital and the health authority. I would suggest that the Deputy should take up the matter with the latter body, as the body appropriate to deal with it.
Mr. Ryan
In view of the gravity of the matter in that some hundreds, if not thousands, of people in this city wait daily for two or three hours in the out-patient departments of hospitals, would the Minister consider using his good offices with the health authorities and hospitals concerned to ensure that there is an immediate and radical improvement so as to prevent a continuance of the situation where injured, maimed and ill people have to wait for two or three hours daily for medical attention?
Of course that is an exaggeration such as is normally associated with the Deputy. The Deputy is a member of an authority which provides a very large part of the finances of the Dublin Health Authority. He is the immediate and direct representative of the people about whom he is speaking on that authority. I suggest that he should do as I have indicated and address his questions to the Health Authority.
Mr. Ryan
Is the Minister aware that this is not a matter of finance? It costs exactly the same to give attention to a person whether the person is obliged to wait one hour or three hours. If the Minister would devote as much energy to his duties as he does to being rude, we might get somewhere with our health service.
We see the Deputy figuring occasionally in the newspapers as attending another public authority and I suggest that he should address this question from that public authority to the Dublin Health Authority and try to get his colleagues on it to do something.
Mr. Ryan
Is the Minister's knowledge of health matters so limited that he is not aware that Dublin Corporation has no function in relation to health at the moment and questions addressed to the manager on that subject will not be answered by the manager since he has no responsibility in the matter?
The Deputy is a member of a public authority which has representatives on the Dublin Health Authority and I suggest that he can get all the information there that he wants.
Mr. Ryan
Would the Minister now address himself to the question I asked? Personalities are more important to him.
Would it not be possible to introduce the appointments system, to make appointments.
That is a matter for the Dublin Health Authority.
Surely it is a matter for the Minister also.
(Interruptions.)
Is the Minister aware that the Dublin Health Authority is controlled by the Fine Gael Party and that the Chairman is a member of Fine Gael and that they have controlled it for the past five years?
(Interruptions.)
Mr. Ryan
This is not a political issue. There may be people in the House who want to make it a matter of politics.
I am calling Question No. 3.