Claims by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, that hospital waiting lists had been significantly reduced have been dismissed by Fine Gael as "the worst type of black propaganda".
The Minister said yesterday that 5,000 people had been taken off waiting lists since the beginning of the year, but it has emerged that these figures include people taken off waiting lists "for a variety of reasons" as well as those who were treated.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health said no breakdown was available of the reasons why people had come off waiting lists, but confirmed that the statistics included both those operated on and those who may have sought treatment elsewhere or died.
It has also emerged that patients must be on a waiting list for at least three months before they are counted in the official figures.
Cappagh Orthopaedic Hospital, Dublin, had 522 fewer people on its waiting list at the end of June than it had six months earlier. A hospital spokeswoman explained that more than half of that number, just over 300 names, had been deleted from the waiting list without having any procedure carried out.
The spokeswoman said the hospital had recently carried out a waiting list validation exercise and contacted all those on its waiting list to see if they still wished to be treated. "We tried to contact everybody by telephone, and if we couldn't, we sent them a letter. If we did not hear from them at the end of one month, we wrote to them again and said if they did not reply they would be taken off the waiting list," she said.
The result was that 304 people were taken off the list. These included 90 who had had surgery elsewhere, 30 who had died, and 140 who had asked for their names to be taken off the list (some said they had no pain, others gave no reason). Fourteen letters were returned unopened, and 30 people had their names on the list twice.
The spokeswoman emphasised that she did not know how many operations were carried out at Cappagh Hospital over the past six months or if extra patients were treated. What she was doing was explaining the waiting list.
However, Mr Martin has insisted that extra patients were treated over the past six months, in addition to waiting lists being validated. There has also been additional investment put into Cappagh, the Minister said.
His claim has been backed up by one of the State's leading heart surgeons, Mr Maurice Neligan. Department of Health figures show the waiting list for cardiac surgery has dropped by 28 per cent. Mr Neligan said it was fair to say there had been a significant fall in the numbers awaiting heart surgery.
He said the opening of a new cardiac surgery unit at St James's Hospital, Dublin, in January and a decision by the Eastern Regional Health Authority to send patients to private hospitals for operations had made a significant impact.
He added that the waiting time for heart operations was still four to five years, but he hoped this would be reduced to six months within two years.
Fine Gael's spokesman on health, Mr Gay Mitchell, rejected Mr Martin's assertion that hospital waiting lists had been reduced and accused the Minister of "massaging" the statistics.
He said GPs were reluctant to refer patients to hospitals because of the length of waiting lists to see consultants in order to get on to waiting lists.
"There are in fact waiting lists to get on waiting lists," he said. "The health service is in chaos and a state of emergency should be declared, with commensurate co-ordinated Government action to deal with the crisis."