Government support for Sláintecare is ‘unwavering’ - Donnelly

Waiting lists for treatment which were terrible before the pandemic have become worse but the Government has responded by adding "the equivalent of two medium-sized hospitals" in terms of extra bed capacity this year, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly is to tell an Oireachtas committee on Wednesday.

The Minister, in an opening statement to the Oireachtas committee on health, will say he regretted the recent resignations of two key figures associated with the Sláintecare health reform programme, Laura Magahy and Prof Tom Keane.

Mr Donnelly will say that both he and the Government shared an "absolute and unwavering" commitment to introducing universal healthcare in Ireland and that Sláintecare provides "a pathway for this".

However, he will say that universal healthcare has never been achieved in Ireland and that the country was still far from it today.

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“Making universal healthcare a reality is one of the defining projects of our time.

“Our goal is clear: Timely and affordable access to consistently high-quality care for everyone.”

He will further tell the committee that there has been record increases in both hospital bed and critical care capacity.

“We have already added around 850 permanent beds to the hospital system this year: the equivalent of two medium-sized hospitals. And more will be added by the end of the year. In fact, we will have added more permanent beds to the system this year than have been added in any year in decades.

“We had 255 critical care beds at the beginning of 2020. We now have 296 critical care beds. More will be delivered over the coming months and we plan to have 321 critical care beds by the end of this year, or early in 2022. That represents an increase of 66 beds, or 25 per cent, in two years. To put that in perspective, we delivered an average of six [critical care] beds per year between 2017 and 2019.”

The Minister will also say that 140,000 additional scans will be carried out by the end of this year under the programme to provide GPs with direct access to diagnostics such as X-rays and MRIs for their patients.

The Minister will also say that it can be hard for patients to access parts of the public health system but when they did the quality of care was often, but not always, excellent.

“Even the parts that are (excellent) are constantly looking to evolve and improve.

‘Number one priority’

Mr Donnelly will tell the committee that tackling waiting lists is his number one priority.

“They were terrible before Covid and have worsened since. People are living in pain. The long waits that many of our citizens face in order to access care are causing immense distress.”

The Minister is to establish a taskforce that will tackle waiting lists. He will say it will follow the model that worked in delivering the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

The Minister will say that the planned new regional health areas need to be “respected” by those working in the system.

Lack of progress in establishing long-planned regional health structures have been criticised by members of the Sláintecare advisory council. Policy options in this area have now been drafted.

“Consultation with stakeholders including patients, clinicians, policymakers and hospital groups and officials in community healthcare organisations has taken place. More is planned in the coming weeks. I am establishing an advisory group on this. We must ensure we arrive at a structure that is respected by those working in our health service.

“The public health system is not where we need it to be when it comes to eHealth. Our healthcare workers are often working on old, antiquated systems but significant progress was made despite the pandemic. Significant additional work is required in this area”, the Minister will say.