Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for being here. I have one question with two parts. Like Deputy Kenny's question, I am dealing with high-level or blue sky thinking. Obviously Covid-19 has had an impact on every part of our lives but particularly in the health sector. The witnesses have already alluded to this but how will the Covid-19 crisis affect the Sláintecare plan? Ms Magahy said that she wants to see this done in a couple of years but we do not have an endpoint for the realisation of Sláintecare. When the National Health Service was set up, people in Britain were told it would be done by a certain date and that was the end of it. When one does not have an endpoint, it is a little bit easier to extend and move things around. What impact will Covid-19 have on our Sláintecare implementation plans? Is that a bit like asking how long is a piece of string?

I am interested in two issues in particular, one of which is weariness among those working in the sector and the other is change management. A key element of this is buy-in from those who are going to be rolling it out. Weariness and burnout are pervasive and get into people's core. This is an issue for healthcare workers most of the time but Covid-19 has exacerbated it. Is the office engaging in strategic planning on how to deal with weariness and burnout in the sector? If the people rolling out the programme are not able to do it because they are exhausted, that will knock Sláintecare on the head. Is there long-term planning around the knock-on effects of Covid-19? Those effects will be society wide and include issues with people's physical and mental health, undiagnosed illnesses as well as delayed diagnoses. We have a shocked system and a shocked population. We do not yet know what the long-term implications will be but we know that people are missing out on diagnoses and so forth.

How does Ms Magahy see that impacting upon those timelines? As she said, she is optimistic about getting it done within a few years but there has been a big shock to the system. What plans are there to try to deal with that?