Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. Similar to the delivery of our education system, the delivery of healthcare in this country can only happen with the support of fantastic people: from our consultants to our GPs to our nurses to our clinicians right across the system. That is why over recent years we have continued to significantly invest not just in our built infrastructure in the expansion of hospitals and bed places but also in the number of people we have working in our health system. It is now higher than it has ever been and the clear objective now, as has been set out very clearly by our Minister for Health this week, is to make sure that with the significant investment that has gone into our health system, the significant investment in and expansion of the number of people working in our service and with a very clear assessment plan through Sláintecare that we have all agreed to, we get the best positive outcomes for those who use our healthcare system, be it in our communities, in our primary care centres, for those who attend our emergency departments or those who attend for scheduled care. That is absolutely the intention of the new Minister for Health, and I commend her work at the early stages in identifying how we can make sure those resources are used in the most appropriate way, how and where there is really good practice taking place across our hospitals and across our communities, and how we can then replicate that, but doing so with our healthcare professionals and with our workers.

As a Government, we will continue to invest in our healthcare system and we will continue to ensure our waiting lists are reducing. There was often a focus on how many people are on lists as opposed to the length of time people are on lists. We need to make sure we have as many people being seen as soon as possible and, where possible, those times reduce as well the overall numbers. We need to make sure we continue to invest in our cancer care treatments and in other areas where we have seen significant progress. We are a country where people are living much longer and it is not by accident. It is because of the significant investment we are placing in our healthcare system, the advancement in technology, the expansion of overall services and the fact we are investing in new drugs, new technologies and new ways to treat people.

In terms of the Deputy's specific question, the HSE, the head of the HSE and our Minister for Health will ensure every effort is made to work with those working in our health sector to be able to provide the best outcomes possible for the people who need the services and who use the services. We, as a Government, will continue to invest in the overall capital spend but, above all, make sure the money being spent is being spent wisely and we get the best possible outcomes from it.

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