Dáil debates

Thursday, 10 October 2019

Ceisteanna - Questions - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions

Hospitals Winter Plan

10:10 am

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy O'Reilly knows when that she talks about money spent on PR, it is an attempt to make a connotation which does not exist. Money spent on PR is money spent on campaigns promoting vaccines, including the flu vaccine, and directing people to the appropriate places, including promoting our minor injury units. When I travel around the country, Deputies on all sides of the House bring me to those units and tell me they could be busier if only people knew about them.

As far as I know, the value-for-money reviews have been completed and I am very happy to ask the HSE to share them with Deputy O'Reilly and the health committee. I will also provide the Deputy with a report on the beds opened. To the best of my knowledge, they remained open but I will confirm that in writing for the Deputy.

I note the Deputy does not want to go back and forth on recruitment and we regularly debate the status of recruitment, but the published figures for the end of August 2019 compared to the end of August 2018 show 2,625 additional whole-time equivalent people working in the Irish health service. There are more doctors, nurses and therapists working in the health service than there were last year. Of course there is a need to do more, but more people are working in the health service.

Individual hospital managers, however, are not able to hire and recruit people for posts which are not funded. If we did that, Deputies would ask me on the floor of the Dáil about the size of the supplementary budget and how we arrived at that situation.

Recruitment is ongoing. I am using University Hospital Limerick as an example because it has been referenced today. About 68 additional people have been hired in Limerick in the past five weeks, 48 of whom are, I understand, nurses. We will put together the HSE service plan and the pay and numbers strategy. We have announced 1,000 additional staff for the community, and we will discuss that as Deputy Brassil has a question in that regard. Any beds that have been opened will have to be properly staffed in accordance with the safe staffing framework.

Deputy Donnelly asked what is different this year. In fairness to him, he acknowledged that the HSE made some progress last year in terms of how it co-ordinated its plan. It did not have a hospital and community plan; rather, it had integrated plans. There will be a continued effort to build on that this year, including using the national ambulance service. There is sometimes a challenge whereby people are ready to leave an acute hospital to go to a smaller or less acute hospital but are waiting for ambulance transfers.

I know Sinn Féin supports the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, which also will be a part of the plan. Last year it gave vouchers for 5,000 diagnostic tests, which helped to take the pressure off emergency departments. We will do more of that this year and I, in conjunction with the HSE, am happy to fully brief the Deputy on the plans once they have been finalised in the coming days.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.