Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It has been a core consequence of Covid-19 that normal non-Covid health services have been impacted very severely where activity levels are concerned, particularly in respect of diagnostics and procedures in acute hospitals. The Government is acutely aware of that. The forthcoming winter initiative plan will very much focus on that issue as well as dealing with the impact of Covid throughout the next six months but, critically, it will focus on the resumption of services.

On cancer screening programmes, a number of those services have resumed albeit not at the same levels that obtained prior to the onset of Covid-19. Various conditions and restrictions have been applied to the hospital setting as well to protect healthcare professionals and patients from Covid-19 when patients are going in for various procedures. That has slowed the throughput of patients to a significant degree. Waiting lists have, therefore, climbed since Covid emerged and we are very well aware of that. This came on top of waiting lists that had already been quite significant. Part of the winter initiative is to endeavour to procure capacity separate from Covid to enable more diagnostics and procedures to be done, particularly in regard to cancer, heart disease and areas where we can prevent the onset of serious illness and intervene early to improve patient outcomes from such conditions, along with additional beds and greater throughput in hospitals.

Another element is reducing pressures on trauma centres and accident and emergency centres through having more community diagnostic centres, particularly with regard to respiratory issues. All of this is designed to reduce the pressures on the acute hospital system to enable more procedures to be done in the acute services consistent with the health protection required in a Covid environment.

The Deputy made a valid point on undertaking more comprehensive research on the impact of Covid on a range of conditions or services. Fundamentally, what is required right now is to make sure that over the next six to nine months, the plan is robust enough to manage Covid and enable the resumption of services to as normal a level as possible within the context of the restrictions of Covid-19.

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