Hospital waiting lists have hit an all time high of 509,944 patients according to May figures. More than 9,000 were added since Simon Harris became Minister for Health.
The number of people waiting for an outpatient appointment have gone up from 407,257 to 415,584 and the number of patients awaiting surgery rose from 74,274 to 74,986.
Even more disgraceful is the fact that there were 5,418 people waiting for surgery for more than 15 months in May. Add to this the 13,095 people who were waiting for over 18 months in May for an appointment to see a specialist, a steep increase from the April figure of 8,570.
Children are also affected by our long waiting times, 4,704 are children are left waiting for surgery, 58 of these have been on the waiting list for more than a year and a half.