David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This session just reaffirms for many of us that it takes far too long to get things done in healthcare. We have heard about the statutory home care scheme time and again. It was in the programme for Government. It still is not in place. The elective hospitals should be in place by now, or certainly much further down the road, and yet it is going to be 2028 at the earliest. Even then I do not think anybody could have confidence that the doors will be open at that point. We are being told electronic patient records might take between five and seven years. We might have a step-down on that with the summary care records within three years but I will not hold my breath. I will see what comes in the next three years. We have been talking about and talking about virtual wards and virtual technology and all those things and still there is no delivery. It strikes me that we really need to pick up the pace and get serious about the big changes in healthcare. I just cannot understand why it takes far too long. I understand there are constraints around finance, the public spending code and budgetary parameters the witnesses are working within but I do not think there is any excuse for why some of these big changes, which we need in healthcare, take so long.

This is one of the announcements that was made a number of times this year and it seems to have fallen off a cliff. Maybe somebody from the HSE could answer this one for me. The Minister was before this committee and said we were going to deliver 1,500 rapid-build beds. Some 700 of those were going to be delivered in 2024. If I was a betting person, and I am not, I would not put any money on those 700 beds being delivered in 2024 because I have not heard a peep since. Can somebody from the HSE tell me where that is? I see there was commentary again across the media on the ESRI report that says we need 3,000 hospital beds by 2030. That is on a no-reform basis. I accept that if we build the elective hospitals and if we switch more care into the community and the home, maybe we will need fewer beds but those rapid-build beds were promised. Can somebody tell me where they are at the moment?