Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the budget allocation for the Department of Health. As announced yesterday, there is some €22 billion, including €4 billion provided as pandemic supports, which was exceptional funding which has been maintained for next year's budget too. There are 900,000 people on waiting lists. Some are there because of delays caused by Covid and by the cyberattack. Prior to that, there was an excessive waiting list. We need to treat that waiting list with the same energy and enthusiasm as we have treated the Covid pandemic, with funding and utilising the investment that we have made in facilities, equipment and the expertise of our consultants, theatre staff and nurses. There is a lot of talk about a four-day week. We need to go the opposite direction to tackle this waiting list, by going to a six or seven-day week. Nobody can work 24-7 but we need to harness the expertise and ability of consultants, theatre staff and nurses to tackle this list. I hope and believe that the allocation in yesterday's budget will go some way to doing that, including using the National Treatment Purchase Fund as necessary. During the initial stages of the pandemic and again in January of this year, we had agreements with private hospitals to ensure that capacity was being used, if necessary, for Covid surges. We need to harness that energy again.

I also call for a debate on Sláintecare. Sláintecare has been a cross-party initiative. We have seen some high-profile resignations recently. It is important to debate these issues with the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, to address the future of Sláintecare and ensure that it continues to progress. There are some outstanding issues. There have been many achievements but there is also much confusion. There was to be a memorandum for Cabinet about elective hospitals last week, which was deferred, which related to the debate around day beds versus inpatient beds.It is important that we have a fuller debate on this very important issue. There is huge demand in Galway for additional inpatient beds. We built a 75-bed ward, which was officially opened back in 2017 or 2018. It came into its own during the Covid period because it had so many en-suite, single occupancy rooms, which were excellent in terms of prevention of cross-infection and all of that. However, there is a need for inpatient beds. The Saolta Hospital Group has demanded this in response to the plan put forward by the Sláintecare team, which talks about day-only facilities. We have been led to believe that, for example, these elective facilities would allow for hip and knee operations. Hip and knee operations cannot be done in facilities where there are only day-care beds. We do not want American-style healthcare. We want to ensure that people are treated and have their recovery time over a period of three or four days, or however long it takes. We need to have this fuller debate in regard to Sláintecare, in particular on the issue of inpatient versus day beds.