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Simon Coveney has been accused of being like the conductor of the Titanic orchestra over the Government\u2019s handling of issues facing the health service.<\/p>\nSimon Coveney has been accused of being like the conductor of the Titanic orchestra over the Government\u2019s handling of issues facing the health service.<\/p>\n
The Government is to release its \u20ac26 million Winter Health Plan to tackle overcrowding and hospital waiting lists on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The new plan is set to provide extra beds, home care, extra medical resources, increased nursing, pharmacy and laboratory staff and therapies support.<\/p>\n
Fianna F\u00e1il TD Dara Calleary outlined a number of issues facing the health service at Leaders Questions in the D\u00e1il and accused the T\u00e1naiste of being in denial about the scale of the crisis.<\/p>\n
It was reported on Thursday that overcrowding in the Rotunda Maternity Hospital in Dublin was putting infant lives at risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also read in this morning\u2019s Irish Times there has been an increased number of patients dying of sepsis and infectious diseases in 2018, cases are up 10% in our hospitals across the country,\u201d Mr Calleary said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is the incident that happened in an emergency department in Galway some weeks back where an elderly lady aged 74 was assaulted by an aggressive patient in the emergency room on a trolley.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe fell out and broke her hip, and unfortunately, following treatment, she passed away.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer family are obviously devastated. The devastation of their loss has been compounded enormously by the circumstances in which her death happened, and they are looking for answers as to why this kind of thing is happening in emergency rooms across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Calleary also highlighted the number of vacant hospital consultant posts and posts being held by non-consultant hospital doctors.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou remind me of the conductor of the Titanic orchestra, you keep playing music while the ship is going down,\u201d Mr Calleary said.<\/p>\n
In response, Mr Coveney said the health service was under considerable pressure and that the Winter Plan announced on Thursday would tackle many of the issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are doing here is to try to keep people out of hospitals, and to try to discharge people from hospital in a more timely manner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can get patients into an appropriate community setting, or at home, or wherever there are step-down facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the Winter plan, nine interaction teams, each aligned to hospital groups, have prepared integrated winter plans that will focus on demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plan will see management staffing timely access to the most appropriate care pathways for patients and appropriate, timely discharge from acute hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Calleary said the Health Service Executive (HSE) moratorium introduced earlier this year meant that while there may be more hospital beds, there were not enough people to staff them.<\/p>\n
A recruitment and overtime ban was brought in by the HSE owing to \u201cfinancial pressure\u201d caused by a surge in recruitment last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are beds closed right across the country because support and staff are not available to staff them,\u201d Mr Calleary said.<\/p>\n
Mr Coveney said the Government had to justify spending on health staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery week we have this debate around a moratorium on recruitment in the HSE. People are being employed in the HSE but it has to be employment that has funding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
“If we commit to spending money that we have not budgeted for each year \u2026 we have huge overspending and have for many years now and the Government has been criticized for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are doing is employing extra people, but in a way that\u2019s consistent with the extra resources that will be made available. We can\u2019t go beyond that.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so people in this house keep calling for more and more and more money to be spent that hasn\u2019t been budgeted for but then criticizing the Government for overspending.\u201d<\/p>\n