New recruitment drive for consultants will create seven-day health service, claims Donnelly

A new recruitment drive for hospital consultants will create a seven-day health service and bring the goal of a universal health service closer, the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has claimed.

Mr Donnelly said both he and the HSE chief executive Bernard Gloucester are working on a plan that will mean an end to hospitals mostly delivering services between 8am and 6pm between Monday and Friday.

He expressed optimism that sufficient hospital consultants will sign up to the new public-only contract to make it work despite the fact that it has been rejected by the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA).

The contract will see consultants routinely rostered at weekends to ensure a seven day service.

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Mr Donnelly said the HSE is confident that it will be able to attract British consultants to work in Ireland as they can earn significantly more money in the Irish system. An international recruitment campaign will also seek to recruit consultants abroad.

Speaking before a Fianna Fáil think-in in relation to the health service, Mr Donnelly said universal healthcare is “within the grasp” of the State for the first time.

It will be achieved by reducing costs for the public, ensuring that specialist services including mental health and women’s specialisms are properly funded and thirdly that there is equal access for everybody to health services irrespective of means or geographical location.

“Our goal of universal healthcare is one of the great unfinished projects of our republic. A healthcare service where every man, woman and child can get access to the care they need when they need not based on how much money they have,” he said.

“Everything we are doing in Government is about mobilising the resources of the state and mobilising our healthcare workers around the goal of universal healthcare, rolling out important new services for patients and making sure that people can access the care they need when they need.”

Mr Donnelly delivered an upbeat assessment of the health service saying that costs for the public had been reduced with the abolition of hospital charges for children and pending for adults, the proposed introduction of 500,000 new GP cards across the country and the reduction in the drug payment scheme from a maximum of €124 a month to €80 a month.

The HSE is now trying to recruit 20,000 additional staff with 1,000 new beds designed to come on stream this year. He claimed hospital waiting lists dropped last year for the first time since 2015.