A local politician has accused the Government of having “no real desire” to end hospital waiting lists.
Slamming the fact that more than 3,500 patients are waiting more than three months for either surgical or medical treatment Galway West Fine Gael senator Fidelma Healy Eames said this was a “scandal”.
“The latest figures on hospital waiting lists in Galway are proof, yet again, that the Health Minister and the Fianna Fáil Government have no ambition to end waiting lists.
“These figures show that over 2,700 patients in Galway are waiting more than three months for surgery. There are over 3,500 patients waiting more than three months for either surgical or medical treatment. This is quite simply a scandal and shows that the Government has no real desire to end waiting lists. Their desire extends only to keeping the National Treatment Purchase Fund [a Government initiative designed to cut hospital waiting lists by offering public patients treatment in private hospitals] in business. Fine Gael has a plan to create a special delivery unit to permanently slash waiting lists so that the NTPF is no longer needed.”
The hospital waiting list figures released do not tell the “full story” because only people waiting more than three months are included, she says.
“It must also be remembered that the number of patients waiting for an outpatient appointment, while widely considered to be a significant number, remains unquantified.
“There are real people behind these statistics bearing the pain of the Health Minister’s abject failures. These are people whose conditions may be worsening while they wait, who may be in pain or discomfort or who may need an important diagnostic procedure.”
