Sinn Féin says it is in the HSE Director General's hands to respond to claims of hidden waiting lists.
It is in response to a report by the Sunday Business Post which says tens of thousands of patients have been omitted from official figures.
Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Health Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin is calling on Head of the HSE Tony O'Brien to respond to the revelations:
In a statement this afternoon, the Health Minister said there has been no attempt to conceal information about waiting times for hospital diagnostics.
Leo Varadkar says he has no interest in making things look better or worse than they are. He says that the HSE plans to publish updated information on diagnostics again in the future.
However he points out it is important the information is accurate and comparable across hospitals, as it currently is not.
Minister Varadkar says "we all agree that waiting times for public patients are unacceptable", and explains he is working on plans for next year with the HSE, with a special focus on very long-waiters.
The Minister says "it is also important to bear in mind that many people waiting for a scan are also waiting for a hospital appointment or surgical procedure. Rather than under-estimating the number of people waiting, it's often the case that the same people are often counted several times.
“Sadly, long waiting times for public patients have been a feature of our health service since the 1980s. In fact when Fianna Fáil was in office, many waiting times were much worse and statistics were not even collected, never mind published," he adds.
Fianna Fáil Health spokesperson Billy Kelleher earlier said "the scale of these delays is extremely alarming, but what is worse is the fact that the extent of the problem is being concealed from the public. Thousands of people are being forced to wait unacceptable amounts of time for diagnostic tests, and these excessive delays have the potential to jeopardise patient prognosis and recovery."
He also points out that "figures that I received from the HSE outlining waiting times for MRI scans make for frightening reading. 27,000 people are currently on a list for a scan, and there are major backlogs at St. Vincent’s University Hospital and the Mater in Dublin, with patients waiting more than a year for the test."
Originally posted at 16.31
