Ahead of Health Minister Simon Harris's visit to University Hospital Galway today, Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh is demanding the introduction of a new system of hospital waiting lists, involving "fairness and strategic management".
According to the Galway Sinn Féin senator, 632,000 patients were on published and unpublished hospital waiting lists by the end of January, with 42,000 on the lists in University Hospital Galway alone.
Sen Ó Clochartaigh said that under the current waiting list system, waiting lists for outpatient appointments, diagnostic tests, day case, and inpatient procedures "vary drastically from one public hospital to the next", with patients not knowing "where they stand on the list nor at what speed their list is moving relative to that of other hospitals within reasonable travelling distance".
Sinn Féin has been calling for the introduction of Comhliosta, an integrated IT system to manage waiting lists across all hospitals in the State, similar to that used in the Portuguese NHS which, Sen Ó Clochartaigh says, delivered "greater investment in public hospitals" and sustained reductions in waiting times for surgery since it was first introduced in 2004.
The Connemara based senator wants Minister Harris to explore the feasibility of a new model to maximise the capacity of the public hospital system and introduce fairness and strategic management across all waiting lists, the component parts of which would be the provision of a core activity budget to public hospitals; an increased overall capacity for the public health system; an end to the special treatment of private patients in public hospitals; and the introduction of a new and single integrated hospital waiting list management system.
Sen Ó Clochartaigh claims the Minister has "indicated his willingness to accept our proposal" but during a recent vote in the Seanad, Fianna Fáíl tabled an amendment to vote it down in what the senator calls "a most cynical manner".
"We are sick of hearing Fianna Fáíl representatives crying crocodile tears on behalf of patients waiting for treatment," he said, "but when Sinn Féin and others actually put forward progressive recommendations to actually tackle the inequitable two tier system, under the dysfunctional HSE that they designed, they inevitably revert to type and block our efforts for short sighted political reasons, which is disgraceful."
