Despite all the fine words we have heard over the past few years from former Minister Varadkar and now from Minister Harris since he was appointed, hospital waiting lists continue to grow and the situation is now spiraling out of control. We need to hear a realistic plan to tackle this problem immediately..
It is quite unbelievable to realise that there are now 517,000 public patients waiting for an outpatient appointment, surgery or a diagnostic procedure. It is clear that the Department of Health will have to outsource many of these patients to private hospitals to clear the backlog. The figure for people waiting on in-patient or day case surgery is now almost 77,000 which is up from 52,000 in 2014 and that is a massive increase. We now have a situation where many people will suffer severe illnesses or even worse because of delayed diagnosis and treatment, and it is a situation that cannot be allowed to continue. I am calling on Minister Harris to tackle this crisis once and for all and I expect to hear his plans on this matter within the next few days
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