A Laois TD has revealed that appointment cancellations reached 571 in Midlands Regional Hospital Portlaoise last year, according to new data from the HSE.
Sinn Féin TD, Brian Stanley said said the HSE delivered the figures to Sinn Féin, adding that the situation is “a Government made crisis.”
Deputy Stanley said the Government “is failing to tackle hospital overcrowding,” which he says is leading to “record levels” of cancellations.
“The Government’s lack of a plan for overcrowding is having a direct impact on waiting lists through cancellations,” Deputy Stanley said, adding that the Government is “shifting the problem from Emergency Departments to waiting lists,” and “leaving patients waiting” for access to care.
“The local appointment cancellations are across all departments,” he said.
“Additionally, most cancer patients in Laois/Offaly would use St Luke’s Radiation Oncology Network; their one Linear Accelerator closed, and they also have a skin cancer machine that is only operating part-time.
“That machine should be treating 35 patients per day, it would go a long way towards reducing waiting times – but it’s not operational.
“Public patients have been continually outsourced to private clinics and Hospitals for years now at significant cost to the public purse.
“Outsourcing can cost €16,000 plus per patient.
“The cost of providing the same service in the public service is a fraction of that cost. It does not make sense to run a health service this way.
“13 years of Varadkar, Harris, and Donnelly have made the health service worse. They have decimated local health services and created pressures in our Hospitals in Laois and Offaly, despite the superb work done in difficult circumstances by the front-line staff there.
“Sinn Féin has a plan for the health service to improve access, tackle hospital overcrowding, and reduce lengthy waiting lists.
“We would deliver 3,000 hospital and community beds to tackle overcrowding and inefficiency; end the recruitment embargo and train more health care professionals to safely staff the health service; and invest in better local health services including GP care and a pharmacy first model.
“Our party would fast-track elective centres in order to separate unscheduled, emergency care from scheduled surgeries and procedures.
“We would also invest in home support, community step-down beds in a diagnostic capacity so that patients can be discharged home or to a supported care setting when they are ready, and to ensure that patients’ experiences are not delayed by lengthy waiting lists for scans.
“Simon Harris will not fix in ten months the disaster which Fine Gael have created over 13 years.
“It’s time for a Health Minister who will stand up for people and deliver the change that the health service needs.”
