Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan. I welcome the Government's decision to invest an additional €600 million in health services this winter. Healthcare workers the length and breadth of the country have worked tirelessly throughout this pandemic and we are going to ask even more of them in the coming months. This investment will go some way towards supporting them as they care for their patients. The plan provides more hospital and community beds and significantly increased homecare support. Some 34 new beds are to be opened at Cork University Hospital under this plan and additional beds are also due to be opened at Mercy University Hospital. While this is a welcome and much-needed measure, any extra capacity also requires extra staffing. I note that the INMO general secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, has expressed concern about the lack of detail around the staff planning arrangements. The success of this plan will be contingent on the recruitment of additional staff. I would like to ask the Minister of State whether her Department could provide further clarity or detail on how the HSE intends to recruit the 12,500 additional staff to provide this care. A constituent of mine was due to undergo an assessment in hospital recently but the doctor carrying out the assessment was deployed elsewhere as a result of Covid-19. A few months later another doctor was assigned. It is my understanding that a few assessments resumed but were halted again in recent weeks due to the increase in cases. I would be hopeful that the Minister could put in place a significant and detailed staffing plan to avoid incidents like this over the coming months. We are all too aware that waiting lists are at record levels and Covid-19 is affecting the overall capacity of the system. I have been contacted by many constituents expressing concern that their elective procedures may be cancelled. The winter plan is estimating some 10,000 outpatient appointments, 2,879 inpatient procedures, nearly 18,000 day case procedures and nearly 3,000 gastrointestinal scopes. I ask the Minister of State to do everything possible to ensure these procedures go ahead.

Cancer services have been mentioned by a number of Members this evening. I ask that the Minister of State ensure that reduced cancer services do not become the new norm in Ireland as the Covid-19 pandemic continues. Cancer patients need to be diagnosed and treated at the earliest opportunity. I ask the Minister of State to commit the necessary funding to cancer services. As we are all well aware, the three screening services, BreastCheck, BowelScreen and CervicalCheck were cancelled in March. CervicalCheck reopened in July and BowelScreen in August. I would be grateful if the Minister of State could provide confirmation of when BreastCheck will reopen. In respect of all three screening services, I ask that a huge effort is made to ensure that screening and cancer test backlogs are cleared as early as possible.

I welcome the €10 million that was made available to disability services last week by the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. She met a number of groups in Cork in the past few months including Cope Foundation and various others. It needs to be acknowledged that the additional funding will make a big difference to day services not just in Cork but around the country.

I was listening to the debate from my office before I came down and wish to respond to some of the adjectives that were used by members of the Opposition. We are not even in the middle of winter yet. People are calling for unity on one stage. I do not think it is the time for ideological battles.

There are Members on this side of the House who believe in ending a two-tier service in healthcare. I do not believe now, in the middle of a pandemic, is the time to be talking about ideological differences. We are facing what will probably be the worst winter in our history in terms of healthcare provision and the people need to get behind the Department of Health, the Minister for Health and the various Ministers of State who have a very difficult task ahead. As I said, I was baffled by some of the adjectives used, such as "underwhelming", "fantasy list", "lacking ambition" and "a failure". It is a failure and it has not even started. We all knowledge there are difficulties in the Department of Health and in healthcare provision in this country. In the middle of a pandemic, however, and facing the worst winter we are likely to face in terms of flu and with Covid-19, the people need to get off the stage and get behind the health services and the Ministers.

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