I would like to object to the way this matter is being treated by the Minister. If the Chair considers a matter to be of sufficient significance to be discussed on the Adjournment, the Minister should have the courtesy to attend or to ask the Minister of State at his Department to represent him. That is no reflection on my constituency colleague, Deputy Gerry O'Sullivan, Minister of State at the Department of the Marine. It is significant also that a script has been prepared in reply to what I will say. It is obvious that the prepared script that will be read is a report that has come from the Southern Health Board. The Minister's representative tonight is acting as a mouthpiece for the health board in responding to me. The response has been prepared even though the Minister, or his representative, does not know what I will say.
As a member of the health board I tried to resolve this matter locally and I regret having to raise it on the Adjournment this evening. A man aged 51 years saw a consultant in the Cork Regional Hospital on 29 March who adjudged his condition to warrant a CAT scan. This cannot be done until 2 June 1993. This man is in severe pain, at home in bed much of the time and when out of bed has to walk with the aid of a stick. I got the run around from the health board when I raised this case. I contacted the manager of the Cork Regional Hospital and I was told by the staff to ask his GP to write or phone them but when his secretary phoned the radiology department, she was told that she should not be wasting their time. That is the treatment I had from the department.
To make matters worse when I raised the matter publicly in The Cork Examiner a faceless spokesman, a PR person I presume, stated that my statements were at variance with the facts and that my comments were a slur on the staff of Cork Regional Hospital. The staff of Cork Regional Hospital are working under extreme pressure, and the lack of resources and pressures of work are putting them under extreme pressure. My comments were no slur on them. However, this is the type of activity that the health board engages in. I wonder if managements of health boards, and specifically the management of the Southern Health Board, are acting as apologists for Government policies? Are they covering up for the inadequacies in the services by employing professional PR people to rubbish claims made by health board members and public representatives? The public, and their representatives, deserve better treatment.
This is no reflection on my colleague, Deputy O'Sullivan. I have no doubt I will receive a reply which is the line being taken by the health board. May I ask the Minister to take an independent line and have the circumstances of this case investigated fully because this is only a symptom of what is happening to services in the Southern Health Board region?
There is a waiting list from two to four years for orthopaedic surgery. Indeed, I could spend all night speaking about the inadequacy of the services. The programme managers, and the manager of the hospital involved, should answer questions raised by public representatives rather than responding through professional PR consultants. They are being paid well to do the job and they should respond to valid complaints.
In this case, the man is a medical cardholder. Would he be treated differently if he was prepared to pay? I believe he would. That is a grave injustice and shows the inadequacies and defects at present and the way these inadequacies are being covered up on a daily basis.
