Stop posturing and form a government

FIGURES revealed in today’s Irish Daily Mail show that 500 operations and elective procedures a week are being cancelled in our hospitals – that is 100 for every working day.

This usually happens when the knockon effect of the trolley crisis kicks in, forcing hospitals to cancel surgeries. It is a forgotten consequence of overcrowding in A&E. Yes, most of the cancelled surgeries are elective, but conditions that are usually dealt with by elective surgery can, says the Irish Patients’ Association, become more serious if surgery is postponed. There also is the psychological torment for those who, understandably nervous of general anaesthetics and the impending procedure, have to face the disappointment of cancellation before steeling themselves once more for the rescheduled appointment.

What these figures demonstrate is the scale of the challenge facing the health service right now, and it is massive.

It is also worth remembering that hundreds of children will sleep, yet again, in temporary accommodation tonight.

We need to find solutions and to find them soon, yet a week after the general election the two main parties have shamefully yet to engage in meaningful talks about forming a government.

It is time for the shallow posturing to end. We do not have the luxury of watching politics treated as a game when such serious issues demand to be dealt with.

Life inside the political bubble is a privilege granted by the electorate, but the payback is that we expect action, first on actually forming a government and then, without any more prevarication, getting to work on ensuring the health service and homelessness are treated with the seriousness and urgency they deserve.