Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the debate and support the amendment moved by the Minister, Deputy Donnelly. I believe in the delivery of fundamental public health services to the highest standard. The Sinn Féin motion was all about taking political aim. It is very personalised. It failed to take into account any of the significant investment in our health services and the policy measures already in train to increase capacity in our health service.

Today, there are 137,220 whole-time equivalents working in public healthcare. As we stand here tonight, they are working. They will work tonight, tomorrow and the day after. There are 137,220. I sincerely thank every one of them. Since 2020, 17,403 more people have entered the public health service, including 5,169 nurses and midwives, 2,870 health and social care professionals, and 1,800 doctors and dentists. Those are facts, not fiction.

Recently, our population was hit by three viruses, which were influenza, Covid-19 and RSV, at the same time. I accept and acknowledge how difficult it was for patients, staff and families. None of us here wants to see any person on a trolley. None of us wants to see an older person on the trolley. It could be any of our families. We have worked tirelessly to try to resolve this. The Minister, Deputy Donnelly, has been working with the HSE since early summer to put in place plans for winter. The winter plan is supporting delivery of a range of actions to optimise available capacity across community and hospital services by expanding GP access, including within the GP out-of-hours service, facilitating patient flow through the hospital system, and supporting safe and timely discharge. We have allocated up to €169 million to make this happen this year.

When demand in our health services spiked, the Minister instructed the HSE to provide for additional out-of-hours cover, including from senior decision-makers. Diagnostic teams, radiology teams and laboratories worked expanded hours too, as did allied health professionals such as physiotherapists, since their roles are fundamental to ensure the full scope of discharge requirements is available. The HSE directly engaged with private hospitals ahead of Christmas and asked for any additional capacity that was available.

Additional GP supports have been made available to enable GPs to extend existing clinics. The measures allow more patients to see more GPs. I echo the thanks expressed by the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, to all the front-line workers. We are truly grateful to them, and we are doing our best to add to their numbers.

There are plenty of examples of good practice across our health system. In my constituency of Waterford, University Hospital Waterford has succeeded in staying trolley-free for over two and a half years. This is an incredible achievement and it must be acknowledged.

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