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THE HEALTH MINISTER has said that a “row over statistics misses the point”, after it emerged that tens of thousands of patients were omitted from official HSE waiting list figures.
The details were published in the Sunday Business Post today. The newspaper says that numbers related to some patients waiting for diagnostic tests are not incorporated into national waiting list figures published by the HSE.
The figures were given to Deputy Billy Kelleher in answer to a parliamentary question.
The Health Minister released a statement saying that the information provided to Deputy Kelleher was given to him by the HSE on foot of a request from the Health Department.
Clearly, there was no attempt to conceal this information. The HSE provided it. As Minister for Health, I have to argue for more resources for our health service. I have no interest in making things looks any better or worse than they really are.
“The HSE plans to publish information on waiting times for diagnostics again in the future but it is important the information is accurate and comparable across hospitals, as currently it is not,” continued Varadkar.
It’s also important to bear in mind that many people waiting for a scan are also waiting for a hospital appointment or surgical procedure. Rather than under-estimating the number of people waiting, it’s often the case that the same people are often counted several times.
A row over statistics misses the point, in my view. We all agree that waiting times for public patients are unacceptable. I am working with the HSE on plans for next year for a special focus on very long-waiters.
The Health Minister said that long waiting times for public patients “have been a feature of our health service since the 1980s”.
Deputy Kelleher said that the figures he received from the HSE outlining waiting times for MRI scans “make for frightening reading”.
27,000 people are currently on a list for a scan, and there are major backlogs at St. Vincent’s University Hospital and the Mater in Dublin, with patients waiting more than a year for the test. The situation has reached critical levels at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick where there are 2,000 waiting more than 2 years.
He said that he was concerned the health service was becoming “more secretive and less transparent”.
Sinn Féin TD and spokesperson on health, Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin said that the HSE Director General needs to “immediately come clean” on the revelations.
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“No attempt to conceal information’.??.huh .That’s been the government motto from day one.
No attempt to make them public would be more like it.
They are also “managing down” lists by removing waiting lists patients who don’t respond to requests for information within two weeks. If you’re ill the last thing you want to do is answer a questionnaire!! Dreadful way we run things here, never mind the recession.
Nothing beyond the usual massaging and bsing
Politician in delusional denial! Sad particularly as he’s an educated medical doctor.
Give Leo a break. He’s doing his best with a terrible mess and he doesn’t go hiding when something goes wrong, unlike some former Health Ministers. God Almighty would need time to fix the Health Service and so will Varadkar. If anyone has a better idea I’m sure he would take it onboard.
I see Leo has adapted well to his predecessor’s simple logistical, logarithmic progression method.
Vradaker has enough cheerleaders in the media without you helping out as well.
He certainly will especially as he spends so much of his time waffling about water.
This Government is rotten with corruption and croynism. The HSE was built to fail so it can be privatised. The HSE is being milked by private quangos and managers that serve no purpose and only qualification is who the are related to or who they know.
If Leo was serious about reform we would see results instead of excuses. The HSE is well funded but managed like the dept of defence in a bananna republic all the Generals and feld marshals are related to el presedente.
He has been in the job for a few months. He is now at the head of a health service with 100,000 employees. If any of those employees makes a mistake, it is often he who gets blamed rather than the actual employee. He has inherited many problems left over from other recent Health Ministers and new issues appear on a weekly basis – including the Aras Attracta one.
This expectation that he can instantly fix all the problems in the health service are wrong. He, like any CEO or Minister or director taking over a new job can only pick certain priorities and work towards fixing them.
His biggest priority seems to be in lowering expectations about what he can actually achieve.
Figures concealed constantly. Ask anyones on a waiting list who receives a letter informing them that a bed *may* be available on a specific date and to call day before coming in. These people are taken OFF lists as soon as figures are collected and when they call, there’s no bed. Scam.
The waiting lists are there, stop making excuses. Do something about it.
OK, Leo thanks. If you say it, it must be true.
I was with Leo until these comments. Admit that obfuscation is taking place for goodness sake! Now I know he can be dishonest. Disappointing.
I wouldn’t blame him to be fair. It’s the lying cheating HSE overpaid, bloated, management who give him the info. Health in crisis. No patient care. People treated worse than cattle.
Ah sure the facists in Europe in the 1930s were masters of spin as well
And what is it so leo .
Is this the same man that used “not one red cent more” for the bond holders as his election slogan?
In my experience when waiting for a follow up appointment you are given the letter of request but told not to post it for a period. Eg 6 months. Nice trick ..keeps waiting list figures down.
Everybody keeps missing the point except Leo thank God we have one of the finest Ministers for health to explain it to us. Well he must be because according to Howling mad Brendan Enda will be remembered as one of the finest Taoiseai ever Just Saying
They could not run a piss up in a brewery. If you don’t have a an uncle aunt cousin or someone belong to you working there you have no hope of getting a job there it’s full of cronies who don’t have a clue I say run the HSE like a business and with the budget they have no one should wait longer than 14 days for any procedure. The scanning machines and all departments in a hospital should be working 24/7.
Leo the liar he could not lie straight in bed
Bond holders come first on the list , no waiting list for them if the government had not given the peoples money to the bondholders we would have the money to fix the HSE.
Manipulation of figures !!! Nothing here to see . Move along there folks !!!!
This man is a medical doctor…
He should return to Private Practice!
They (government) will never fix HSE . It’s full of miss management ,full to the brim with cronyism and full of constant patient failings from maternity to elderly.
It is pretty clear that all were going to get from Leo, is more of the same. really dissapointing.
If the bold Leo concentrated on the problems of the Health Service instead of getting involved in the water debacle he might actually improve the health service a wee bit.
Bullshit I was waiting 3 month to see a specialist and was given no indication as to when I would get a appointed, just told I was in a waiting list.
As a medically trained Doctor this arrogant SOB should bow his head in shame. One of the reasons I voted for him was I thought he was honest and forthright. You and your party will be a distant memory soon enough.
The public don’t know the half of it… A huge percentage of scam artists are holding the HSE/tax payer to ransom, receiving preferential treatment, free operations/beds etc with no waiting what so ever (straight to private). The scam is to sue the system (using free legal aid of course) and it’s happening every day of the week, whether young or old. Leaves the system with no leg to stand on (excuse the pun). This is one of the biggest secrets/cover ups I reckon.
I am a man of 48 years of age,And i happen to be one of the oldest in Ireland with Cystic Fibrosis still knocking around , i have attended St Vincents hospital since i was 16 (previously a patient of Sir patrick dunnes hospital) I have seen both sides of the the spectrum in our hospitals,from A and E to full hospital care, I have felt the cold hearted disdain,of the full outpatients on a Saturday night,where people clamour for attention – all of us looking for the same doctor,thinking that our problems are more important than the next persons.
I have also felt the Warmth,Caring and full on attention of the CF nurses/doctors in the new CF ward in St Vincents hospital when i was lucky to be given a bed,
Tonight, I am saying goodbye to a friend of mine that died through cancer,
she passed away in St Vincents today,
Me, my friends,and family have never wanted for anything when it has come to compassion, thoughts or time in hospital care in Ireland,
NO we are not perfect in this country, YES we deserve better than the leaders that we have, including this Pwick Varadkar.
Massaging numbers/waiting lists to fit a criteria of a voters polling list is shameful on a political point, and that is all we are, numbers on a list
– but let it not take away from the fact, that our hospital doctors,nurses and A &E staff are some of the finest in the world, are always there to help us in our time of need, and do so with compassion, empathy and sincerity.
Do not let the likes of Varadkar, Enda, and the top heavy crew in the HSE cloud,muddy or otherwise take away from the sterling work that the people on the coalface do.
For all the faults of the HSE and there are many ,when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, the people in the firing line are some of the finest,most caring people that we have in this country,Varadkar is like his last two predecessors,is full of political wind and bullshit, caring more about numbers,spin and reports rather than you and me.
A party of liars and the heir apparent lying through his teeth
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