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

Ní aontaím leis an Teachta ó thaobh an plean atá foilsithe ag an Aire, An Teachta Donnelly, mar is léir gur plean cuimsitheach é. Caithfear é a chur i gcomhthéacs an plean a bhí againn anuraidh ina raibh an-chuid áiseanna agus airgid curtha ar fáil do na hospidéil ach go háirithe agus na seirbhísí sláinte go hiomlán. Diaidh ar ndiaidh, tá níos mó leapacha againn anois agus tá i bhfad níos mó daoine ag obair sa tseirbhís ná mar a bhí. Is léir go bhfuil dul chun cinn le feiceáil ach, dar ndóigh, tá dúshlán an-mhór amach romhainn, ní hamháin ó thaobh na paindéime de ach tá an daonra ag dul in airde agus tá brú faoi leith ar na daoine atá ag obair laistigh den tseirbhís.

I thank the Deputy for her question, but to be fair by comparison with previous winter initiative plans - €40 million in 2016, €40 million again in 2017, €10 million in 2018 and €10 million in 2019 - last year's winter initiative plan was €600 million. That went into the base and underpins the efforts we make this year. That €600 million along with additional funding has produced 800 non-ICU acute beds, which is the largest ever. By the end of the year, that will go up to approximately, 950, which I would say is the largest increase in hospital beds in decades, and certainly in the history of the HSE. We want to do more on acute beds in 2022. A further 205 beds in 2022 are committed to and funded, and any additionality that can be brought on stream will be brought on stream.

I spoke at a recent Cabinet health sub-committee meeting. I fully understand the issue relating to capital approvals and I have asked for that to be accelerated. I have spoken to the HSE about that. We will work with the HSE in respect of capital approvals to get new elective facilities, in particular, delivered as fast as we can. In Ireland, large infrastructural projects, be they on hospitals, road or rail, simply take too long. We have to go through all the planning processes, all the conditions and so on, but it is simply taking too long to get large projects done, and I am determined that major healthcare capital projects will get done much faster.

The winter plan is essentially focusing on a core objective of emergency department avoidance by treating people at home or in the community and by allowing them to return home quickly following hospitalisation. Those initiatives include GP liaison nurses to manage direct referrals from GPs to emergency departments; geriatric community support; enhancement and expansion of frailty intervention therapy teams models; community response teams, involving nursing and therapies in the community; community respiratory admission avoidance teams; expansion of the National Ambulance Service Pathfinder initiative; additional home support hours; and COPD outreach teams. We want to get to people before they are admitted to hospital in the first place and then, within the hospital, to have far better flows than was historically the case. That was achieved last year through a record 5 million home care hours that were provided.

The challenge facing us this year is not funding or resources, but rather getting the workers in sufficient numbers in the country to take up posts as home carers. That is a challenge. We have recruited 4,462 whole-time equivalents in 2021.

Last year, it was 6,357 extra whole-time equivalents, so that means approximately 11,000 extra whole-time equivalents recruited in the guts of two years. Again, I have no issue with accelerating the recruitment processes. The funding is there. In fact, more funding was provided, meaning additional people could have been recruited if the people had been there.

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