Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

231. To ask the Minister for Health the degree to which staff shortages at various levels continue to be identified as a contributory factor causing delays for persons awaiting various procedures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28593/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There are recruitment and retention difficulties in certain areas of the health service, including some consultant and nursing specialties. In these instances, the HSE utilises a range of measures, including agency, locum and other-short term arrangements to support service delivery. Following on from its first report, in which it identified recruitment and retention problems in specialist groups in the health sector that are internationally in demand, the Pay Commission is currently giving consideration to a number of groups including nurses and consultants.

The Health Service Capacity Review which I published in January highlighted the scale of reform needed to meet the healthcare demands of our growing and ageing population. Under the National Development Plan capital funding for our health services, €10.9 billion over the next ten years, will be 165% higher than it was for the last 10 years. This provides a real, long-term opportunity to improve our health services, drive down waiting lists, increase bed capacity, reform pathways of care and modernise how we deliver health services guided by the principles in the Sláintecare report.

Even with the required reforms, the Review concludes that acute hospital bed capacity will need to increase by 2,600 to support timely delivery of care. This will require additional staffing at all levels and real changes to healthcare delivery in order to have a sustainable healthcare system, with an emphasis on public health and illness prevention.

In the short term, reducing waiting times for the longest waiting patients is one of this Government's key priorities. In Budget 2018, €50 million was provided to the NTPF to provide treatment for public patients this year, which more than doubled its 2017 total allocation for the NTPF.

The most recently published National Treatment Purchase Fund figures for the end of May confirm that just under 78,600 patients are waiting for a hospital inpatient or day case procedure. This represents a fall of more than 7,500 patients, or almost 9% in just 10 months. This positive progress in reducing waiting times for patients waiting for a hospital procedure is the result of the focus and investment by Government in this area utilising available capacity within and outside of the public health service. In Budget 2018, €50 million was provided to the NTPF to provide treatment for public patients this year, which more than doubled its 2017 total allocation for the NTPF.