Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

welcomes the increase of 1,200 in the number of in-patient beds and day treatment places since the publication of the Health Strategy in 2001 and the plans to open new acute hospital units;

welcomes the unprecedented rate of expansion of acute hospital bed capacity since 1997;

notes the national review of acute hospital bed needs currently under way which will identify the number of acute hospital beds needed up to 2020;

notes the annual increase in acute hospital activity with the result that in excess of 1 million patients receive treatment in public hospitals each year;

supports management actions to improve the efficiency of use of acute hospital beds in order to shorten lengths of stay for patients and bring average length of stay closer to international norms;

regrets that some patients have their operations postponed when priority is necessarily given to emergency cases; recognises that postponement causes upset and inconvenience for patients and their families; and supports all management actions to free up hospital beds and keep postponement to a minimum;

notes the significant increase in intensive care and general bed capacity at St. James's Hospital;

supports the success of the National Treatment Purchase Fund in providing treatment for 55,000 patients, achieving major reductions in waiting times for public patients and providing a service that is directly responsive to patients;

supports the initiative to encourage private investment in new facilities on the campuses of public hospitals with the central purpose of freeing 1,000 beds currently reserved for private patients for use by public patients in a most cost effective way;

commends the Minister for:

the fact that there are now more medical cards in issue than in 1997;

the fact that substantially more people can now visit their GP free of charge than in 1997 due to the introduction of the GP visit card;

the substantial increases in the medical card and GP visit card assessment guidelines;

the considerable easing in the means test income assessment now based on disposable income after tax and certain living expenses;

the investment in the development of GP out of hours services and the recent commencement in GP out of hours service in north Dublin city; and

funding additional GP vocational training places;

commends the Government on the funding of €44 million provided to date for the establishment of primary care teams and networks and acknowledges the commitment in the Towards 2016 partnership agreement to the further expansion of the primary care system;

strongly commends the Government for the largest expansion in services for older people over the two recent budgets, with additional funding of €400 million provided, bringing in major expansions in home help packages, home help hours, palliative care and nursing home subventions;

commends the Government and the Health Service Executive for securing 1,000 new long-term care beds in 2006 and for the planned addition of 800 long-term beds this year, the majority in the public sector;

commends the Government on publishing and accepting the broad thrust of the recommendations from the Working Group on Undergraduate Medical Education and Training (Fottrell) and the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Group (Buttimer);

acknowledges the measures taken by the Government to provide funding and support for the integrated implementation of the reforms in medical education and training across the health and education sectors from undergraduate through to specialist training;

supports the Government's proposals to increase the numbers of EU student places in medicine at undergraduate level; introduce a graduate entry stream into medical education; reform the entry mechanisms into medical education; strengthen governance and accountability, improve graduate retention and phase out non-consultant hospital doctor (NCHD) posts of limited training value;

acknowledges the significant increase of 66% in both the number of consultants and junior hospital doctors over the past ten years; and

supports the Minister in the conduct of negotiations with medical consultants on a new contract within a specific, urgent timeframe, to allow for the beginning of the recruitment of 1,500 new consultants on new contractual terms and a corresponding reduction in NCHD numbers.

I wish to share time with the Minister of State, Deputy Tim O'Malley.

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