Sinn Fein TD Brian Stanley has said “There isn’t a family in the State that has not been affected by the current crisis of hospital waiting lists.
“As of May 2018 the waiting lists for medical procedures stood at an all time high of over 707,000. This was made up of 78,596 who were waiting on inpatient procedures and 511,904 waiting on an outpatient procedure.”
Currently there are 6,241 people on waiting lists for over a year for a procedure in Portlaoise and Tullamore hospitals.
The Euro Health Consumer Index of 2017 found that this state has the worst hospital waiting list in Europe.
The population in the midlands is increasing and the current system has not got the capacity to solve this crisis.
Sinn Fein want more frontline staff trained and recruited and Hospital beds that were closed during the recession need to be reopened.
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