Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, has said Fine Gael is a Party of record breaking – for all the wrong reasons. Deputy Donnelly was speaking as the Government racks up another historic ‘first’ with news that for the first time ever there are now more than half a million patients waiting to see a specialist.
Deputy Donnelly explained, “Recently we found out that Fine Gael had broken another health record. There have never been more people waiting a year and a half for an outpatient appointment with 101,724 on the list.
“That’s not the only record they’ve broken recently. Last week they also clocked up the highest number of patients on trolleys, in a single day, at a single hospital, as 81 people were waiting for a bed at University Hospital Limerick.
“During Minister Harris’s tenure he’s shown us some numbers we’ve never seen before. Take the cost of the new National Children’s Hospital for instance. Never before have we seen a building in this country, that cost €1,730,000,000.
“Or what about the massive total of 80,000 women left waiting for a smear test after the CervicalCheck scandal. Or 7,000 which is the number of children with mental health concerns waiting for psychology support.
“Then there are some smaller figures that are equally alarming like 0, that’s the amount of funding which has been allocated this year to move a Maternity Hospital onto the site of our new Children’s Hospital. Or perhaps, 3, that’s the amount of years that children in Wexford are left waiting to see an Occupational Therapist.
“All these statistics have one thing in common, they’re all record-breaking. Sadly the only broken record is Minister Harris and his claims that things will get better,” concluded Deputy Donnelly.
