HOSPITAL waiting lists dropped by 24 per cent or 9,683 in the three years to June, 1996, the Minister of State for Health, Mr Brian O'Shea, said in the Dail. The number of people waiting for treatment during that period dropped from 40,130 to 30,447, according to the Minister's statistics.
Mr O'Shea said the latest figures to March 1997 had recently become available but "require a detailed validation and analysis band this is currently being carried out in the Department".
However, Mr Brian Cowen, the Fianna Fail spokesman on Health, claimed the latest statistics were being withheld deliberately because they were bad. "When they are good they come out a lot faster," said Mr Cowen who raised the issue on the adjournment.
He called on the Minister for Health to release the new statistics by the weekend, otherwise he would become like other Ministers, including the Taoiseach, in being "economical with the truth".
The Laois Offaly TD said when the Rainbow Coalition came to power in 1994, there were 23,700 people on hospital lists. This was a reduction from the 40,000 on the lists which was brought about by the Fianna Fail led government, which spent £30 million on cutting the waiting lists.
The current government had spent just £20 million over two years and the waiting list figures rose again to 31,519 before dropping to 26,000 in December, 1996. However, he said, this was still more than the 23,700 waiting for treatment in 1994.
Mr O'Shea said, however, that the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, was investing a further £8 million in 1997 to reduce waiting lists. "This funding will be targeted at areas where waiting times for surgery are excessively long and special attention will again be paid to reduce the waiting times for cardiac surgery, including heart bypass operations."