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

There is nothing lying on the Minister's desk. There has been a very substantial increase in core funding for the health service. The Minister has published an initiative to deal with this winter. There are concerns about a combination of a flu outbreak and a return of the Covid virus, which could cause very significant difficulties with regard to admissions to hospital. That is why there has been a stronger focus on primary care and community care. The enhanced community care programme is a very significant development and initiative, which will prevent people from having to go into the hospitals in the first instance. Key to this is patient flow, that is, keeping patients moving efficiently through hospitals and making sure there are facilities for discharge to the optimal location for them to recover when they have finished the acute phase of their treatment.

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