Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate Deputy Kelleher's helpfulness but that is simply not the case. For whatever reason, he is ignoring the reality that in addition to that €9 million, €20 million has been provided specifically for the NTPF to drive down waiting lists to more acceptable, albeit still high, levels by October 2017. It is intended to have no one waiting longer than 15 months for any procedure, whether inpatient, outpatient or day case. The Deputy is ignoring the fact that there is funding in the budget for 1,000 additional nurses. If we want to improve services in our acute hospital setting and across the health service, we need more nurses. The Deputy acknowledges the need for a bed-capacity review, on which we agree, and the work being undertaken to have it ready for the mid-term capital review. If we are serious about breaking the cycle of overcrowding that every Minister for Health has experienced in the last two decades, we will have to do something different on bed capacity. The Deputy's response ignores the fact that we are working actively and have started engagement on a new GP contract instead of operating off a 44 year-old contract which is out of date. A new GP contract will actually shift services decisively from the acute hospital setting into primary care. As such, there is a great deal more in the HSE service plan than just €9 million in addition.

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