Waiting lists - O’Malley must explain or resign

Irish medical consultants are on some kind of ego trip, getting pleasure out of the suffering of people on waiting lists, because it makes them feel more powerful to have a hundred or 200 people on their list.

That was the message yesterday of Tim O’Malley, the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, with special responsibility for disability and mental health services. He was downplaying waiting lists.

One wonders if he was being particularly brave or spectacularly foolish? If any consultants have been deliberately building up waiting lists and thereby exploiting the suffering of people to use them as a stick to beat the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive, then Mr O’Malley should name and shame those people for trampling on their Hippocratic oath.

He has already been challenged to do so by the opposition. Members of the Oireachtas are accorded absolute privilege to speak out in Leinster House without fear of litigation.

If Mr O’Malley does know what he was talking about, he should justify his allegations. Otherwise, his position is untenable, and he should resign or be removed immediately.

In the coming months, candidates for Government parties will brag about the amount of money spent on just about everything. They maintain now that they are spending more than ever on mental health, but this is a reflection of inflation. Of course, there has been inflation.

They have shamelessly inflated their own salaries and perks, as well as those of senior civil servants. The reality, however, is that the amount spent on mental health, as a percentage of overall health expenditure, has almost halved over the past 18 years.

Last night’s Prime Time programme had some harrowing details about parents and young people waiting for help with bipolar disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Parents have to wait for over a year just to have a child assessed for ADHD. Then it may be two years before the child receives treatment in Dublin, or between three and four years in Mayo, and up to four-and-a-half years in Kerry.

Mr O’Malley stated that he very seldom has been asked to make representations on this issue. “When I questioned the waiting lists,” he said, “the children were seen very quickly.” He was not bragging about his own political influence but questioning the validity of the delays.

Significant medical advances have been made in the area of mental health, but it is important that treatment should be received as early as possible.

Parents of one child suffering from ADHD told a heartrending story of the isolation of their child, who is socially ostracised by fellow pupils because of his behavioural problems.

The parents fear that their boy is suicidal, but they have been unable to get treatment for him, even though they have been requesting it since he was little over two years old. He is now seven. This is outrageous.

One of the striking features of the Prime Time programme was the bravery of those people who came forward to tell their stories. Their courage will no doubt help to lift some of the stigma surrounding mental health for so long. These people deserve so much better. Our political leaders should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.