Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for giving me the opportunity to raise the subject matter of Question No. 104 on the Order Paper of 12 March 1991. The question was: "To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the fact that there is a waiting list in excess of one year for outpatient orthopaedic appointments at Cork Regional Hospital; and when a person (details supplied) in Cork will be called for examination". The Minister said in reply:
I have had inquiries made with the Southern Health Board in connection with this case. The board have no record of this case. I would suggest that the person concerned or his general practitioner should make contact immediately with an orthopaedic surgeon. I am, of course, aware of the waiting list referred to by the Deputy. However, I should explain that the admission of a patient to hospital is a clinical decision for the consultant in charge of the case. Patients are given priority in accordance with medical criteria and their position on the waiting list, and it is open to general practitioners to stress the urgency of an individual case to the consultant concerned.
The Minister's reply suggests he has been misinformed. If that is not the case he is trying to mislead the House in stating that the Southern Health Board have no record of this case. I have in my possession a letter of acknowledgment from the Southern Health Board, dated 25 February 1991, to the person concerned stating that the waiting list for outpatient appointments is now more than one year long. They said they would be more than pleased to furnish a copy of the letter to the Minister for his information, in the hope that he would clarify his position vis-á-vis this case. I have the letter if the Minister wishes to see it.
The Minister suggested in his reply that the person concerned or his general practitioner should make contact with the orthopaedic surgeon, and he has done this. The letter from the Southern Health Board acknowledges his request to make an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon and states that such an appointment will not be possible for at least a year. The inconsistencies between the Minister's reply and what is actually happening in our health service illustrates the Minister's isolation from reality and, indeed, his inability to realise the full responsibilities of his very important brief.
The Minister also stated that an admission of a patient to hospital is a clinical decision for the consultant in charge of the case. This remark suggests that the Minister is passing the buck by inferring that the consultant does not consider this person to be sufficiently ill to warrant hospital treatment. I regret to say that this person has not even got as far as seeing the orthopaedic surgeon because of the unacceptable waiting list. The Minister's remark also begs the question, exactly where does he fit into the health service? His reply suggests that he is merely an innocent bystander in the midst of all this chaos. As Minister for Health he has failed to acknowledge his responsibility for the health service. He is not prepared to do anything to reduce the waiting time. In response to my question the Minister acknowledges the existence of unacceptable waiting lists in the Southern Health Board area and in all the health board areas throughout the country. This acceptance is totally contradictory to recent statements made by him in this House that our health service is in satisfactory order. He disputed claims made by the Labour Party that a crisis exists in the health service.
This case involves an elderly man of 70 years of age. To expect a person of this age to wait a year for an appointment to see a consultant is intolerable, but then to expect him to wait at least a further year for hospital treatment or surgery is, indeed, a poor reflection not only on the Minister for Health but on the health service over which he presides.
