Poor hospital administration ‘must be tackled’

Serious maladministration, identified in public hospitals where patients are skipping the queue at the expense of other possibly urgent cases, must be tackled immediately, Social Democrats TD Róisín Shortall has urged.

Ms Shortall, who chaired the all-party Oireachtas committee on the future of healthcare, said it was a matter of “serious concern” the hospital waiting lists could not be trusted and lacked fairness.

The co-leader of the Social Democrats was responding to significant shortcomings identified by a National Treatment Purchase Fund audit of hospital waiting lists.