Tánaiste says work ongoing to reduce hospital waiting lists

THE Tánaiste Micheál Martin has admitted more capacity is needed in Cork hospitals but said there is a lot of hard work going on to reduce the waiting lists.

The Tánaiste said ‘unprecedented’ resources have been allocated to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).

“I think there has been a significant backlog since covid which has created challenges for hospitals,” he acknowledged on Friday.

“There is a lot of work going on to try and reduce the waiting lists. There have been reductions in scopes for example which is more in the diagnostic front. There has been very significant work done there particularly in working with the GPs in the whole diagnostic area.

“In terms of certain procedures unprecedented resources have been given to the NTPF and indeed hospitals to try and get the list down.”

The Government last year gave approval for Cork’s new elective hospital to be built at St Stephen’s Hospital in Sarsfield’s Court, Glanmire.

The Tánaiste said he would like to try and ‘accelerate’ this project but it has to go through various stages before construction.

“We have earmarked money for the elective centre in Glanmire but it has to go through planning and design and all of that,” he said. “That is going to be very important.

“We do need more capacity and we are working with the hospital authorities to move on projects.”

Deputy Martin said that a significant focus is concentrating on the prevention of injuries and chronic illnesses developing.

“The stroke unit at the Cork University Hospital has been a huge success,” he said. 

“The most significant development in the last two years in Cork has been the Enhanced Community Care in Gurranabraher and the various clinics that are there in respect of cardiac respiratory monitoring, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the aging centre where people can get checked.

“There is a whole range of services there. That is the way to go in the future to prevent injuries and chronic illnesses developing. All of that is a significant focus.”