Dáil debates

Wednesday, 6 October 2010

Health Services: Motion (Resumed)

 

1:00 pm

Photo of Seán Ó FearghaílSeán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

I am grateful to have the opportunity to contribute briefly in support of the Government's amendment to the Fine Gael motion before the House this evening.

It was appropriate that in her contribution last evening the Minister placed this debate in its proper context, that is, how can we as a country continue to provide the best possible health services to all our people at a time of enormous economic constraints? The statistics are worth repeating. The €15.2 billion that will be spent on health services in 2010 will exceed our total income tax take by a massive 33% and will represent 49% of the State's total tax receipts. It is impossible, therefore, to address the nation's budgetary problems without achieving savings in this area of massive expenditure.

The challenge for us all is to ensure that front-line services are protected to the fullest extent possible. That can be achieved only through urgent reform of systems and work practices across the entire health service.

The Croke Park agreement promises reform but in the health sector that reform must be delivered immediately. During the halcyon days of the Celtic tiger we could perhaps have afforded the luxury of indulging in procrastination and rhetoric but time lost now in achieving essential reform will result in inexorably growing waiting lists for both outpatient clinics and inpatient procedures, which ultimately increases human suffering and misery.I would urge that we capture this crisis and turn it into an opportunity to deliver a new partnership within the health sector, a partnership that permeates through all levels of the sector and one that is flexible, co-operative, innovative and effective in achieving even greater productivity at less cost.

On the matter of waiting lists, the progress achieved in recent years and that has been outlined here on numerous occasions by the Minister, Deputy Harney, must be acknowledged. The reduction of the average waiting time from between two to five years in 2002 to 2.6 months currently for surgical and medical procedures is highly significant. The work of the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, has been hugely effective in this area.

Another significant factor in achieving these efficiencies has been the recruitment of additional consultants and the implementation of the new consultant contract. In mentioning the consultant contract I would highlight again the protracted process that surrounded the negotiation of this contract as an example of what we cannot allow to occur in the package of reforms we must now achieve.

While acknowledging the major progress achieved, it would be remiss of me on the matter of waiting times not to highlight the difficulties public patients in my constituency are experiencing in accessing orthopaedic services, in particular at Tallaght hospital. Waiting times in that hospital are well in excess of 12 months, and the NTPF will provide service only to patients who have waited in excess of nine months. As a consequence, patients are enduring unnecessary physical pain, psychological distress and must resort to expensive medications, some of which have significant side effects. The economic costs of delays in treatment are evident, including loss of productivity within the workforce and extended primary care costs.

I am firmly convinced that we must apply the principles of the smart economy to achieving efficiencies within the health sector. The capacity exists across the country to effect waiting time reductions by utilizing technologies within the private sector and applying the principles to the NTPF. I propose that we give direct access to general practitioners, through competitively negotiated contracts, to MRI scans for investigations of conditions such as back pain. In so doing, many unnecessary referrals from GPs to orthopaedic clinics would be eliminated. The same approach could be applied to other areas of the medical field.

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