Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Tógfaidh mé Ceisteanna Uimh. 10 go 20 le chéile.

The Cabinet Committee on Health met on 29 May and is due to meet again on 19 June.

In addition to the meetings of the full Cabinet and of Cabinet committees, I meet Ministers on an individual basis to focus on different issues. I meet regularly with the Minister for Health to discuss progress and challenges in the area of Health, including the Sláintecare reform programme.

Sláintecare is happening with the support and the oversight of the Department of the Taoiseach through the Cabinet Committee on Health. It is about four main things: making healthcare more affordable, making healthcare more accessible, ensuring better outcomes for patients and reforming and modernising our health service.

We are committed to expanding the core capacity of our acute hospitals, with more health professionals and more acute hospital beds. Over the past three years we have added nearly 1,000 acute hospital beds and 360 community beds, with further additional beds planned for this year and next year.

We have increased the total public health sector workforce by more than 20,000 since the Government came into office. That includes 6,500 extra nurses and midwives, 3,200 social care professionals and 2,000 doctors and dentists.

There is a strong pipeline of capital projects, including several new hospitals and significant new facilities for existing hospitals.

Approximately €443 million is being provided to reduce waiting times this year. Our multi-annual approach resulted in an overall reduction in the number of patients exceeding the maximum Sláintecare waiting time, that is, roughly three months, by 11% in 2022, with a target of a further 10% reduction this year. This includes €123 million on a recurrent basis for the HSE to introduce modernised care pathways and €80 million has been allocated to various primary care and community care initiatives.

The enhanced community care programme continues to improve healthcare at a more local level. This programme, which is investing €240 million in community health services, is easing pressure on hospitals and in more acute settings.

The majority of community healthcare networks, community intervention teams and community support teams are now in place and providing care closer to home.

In the first full year post implementation, it is projected that community healthcare networks and community specialist teams will enable between 16,000 and 21,000 patients to avoid having to attend an emergency department.

Work is ongoing on the reconfiguration of the HSE organisational structures into six new health regions and the establishment of elective care centres in Dublin, Cork and Galway, as well as surgical hubs in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford in the interim. We are also making healthcare more affordable at a time when a cost-of-living crisis is affecting everyone. Hospital charges for patients have been abolished, with the exception of emergency department fees. We are also widening the eligibility for the GP card, which will allow many thousands more people to attend their GP without fees. The drug payment scheme threshold has been reduced, so no individual or household has to pay more than €80 a month for their medicines. Additional eligibility initiatives include €10 million provided for access to IVF treatments, the expansion of free contraception to women aged 26 to 30, free home sexually transmitted infection testing kits and €5 million for oral healthcare for children up to seven years of age.

Our health service has its challenges, but our health system is responding and has expanded dramatically in recent years. We are treating more people, with better outcomes, than ever before. Life expectancy in Ireland is now among the highest in Europe. We also continue to see mortality rates for stroke and certain cancers improve, and we will advance these reforms further this year and next.

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