Last week I raised the issue of the endoscopy unit in Connolly Hospital and I received a message from a frustrated member of staff. It said that Connolly Hospital does not have enough beds for the population it is serving, the emergency department is under huge pressure all the time and the numbers being returned do not reflect the true situation. The hospital is using the line that procedures are being cancelled due to the winter initiative. If that is the case, then the winter initiative has been going on since last winter. Procedures are being outsourced to other hospitals in the group. However, there are still large numbers waiting and referrals are still coming. Let us see how long this is going on. In May 2018 the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, wrote about the exact same issue that we are talking about here today. The same issues are coming up year after year. There is a problem and it needs to be resolved.

It is a matter of policy within our health service and many health services around the world that during the winter surge, you prioritise people coming into the emergency department over scheduled care. It is a normal way to balance the capacity we have available and to prioritise emergency department attendances and admissions. It is done in Connolly Hospital and in hospitals around the country. It is done in hospitals around the world.

That is not what is being said by the staff.

That is the first part of it.

The second part of it is that the Deputy is right and the staff are right to call for more capacity. We have added 1,100 extra beds and 26,000 extra staff.

Thanks to the great efforts of those staff, including, undoubtedly, the staff member referred to by the Deputy, the waiting lists are falling now. They have fallen for two years in a row, and they will fall again this year. The number of patients on trolleys is falling as well. I am not, though, for a moment, suggesting we are where we want to be. We are not.

I thank the Minister. Go raibh maith agat. We are over time.

There are several more years to go. Thanks to the work of our healthcare workers, however, we are now clearly moving in a better direction.