Health service ‘a long distance’ from Sláintecare targets for waiting lists, staff levels, says Gould

A CORK TD has said the health service is “a long distance” from Sláintecare targets, with no long-term plan to bring waiting times to acceptable, safe levels.

Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould was speaking to The Echo following Health Minister Stephen Donnelly’s publication of the Sláintecare Progress Report 2022 and the Sláintecare Action Plan 2023.

Mr Donnelly said that “central elements of Sláintecare have been, and are being, achieved” in 2022 and 2023, including the new public-only consultant contract, a new community-based service, Enhanced Community Care (ECC), and certain eligibility measures.

“Many Sláintecare measures have been achieved, or are progressed at pace, while some require significant additional focus, such as eHealth. At the same time, important new Programme for Government measures, also essential to universal healthcare, and which move beyond Sláintecare, are also progressing well,” Mr Donnelly said.

“These include clinical strategies and services, acute and critical-care capacity and new eligibility measures.

“Through the unprecedented investment in health and social services over the last three years, we now have an additional 17,298 staff working in our health services, 2,400 healthcare workers recruited to the Enhanced Community Care Programme, providing more care in the community, 970 additional acute beds, and a 25% increase in critical care capacity,” he said.

Mr Gould said that the problems in hospitals will not be addressed unless there is a significant expansion of primary and community care to provide alternatives for patients and to deliver preventative healthcare to halt the deterioration of conditions and reduce hospitalisations.

“Despite a significant budget, the HSE cannot deliver all of the home-help hours or fill the positions in community healthcare, because the staff simply don’t exist, and, in some areas, pay and conditions are severely limiting recruitment options.

“The absence of clear training, recruitment and retention targets to maximise the number of workers entering and staying in the health service is a major weakness in the minister’s plans.

“A cornerstone measure that is essential to tackling waiting lists is elective hospitals, but it is taking far too long to advance their development. It will take years yet before they are built and operational.

“We are seeing the timeline for the delivery of the elective hospital in Glanmire pushed out further and further, with latest dates suggesting the facility won’t be open until 2027, at the earliest.

“Progress on delivering the right care, in the right place, at the right time, has been frustratingly slow since the Sláintecare programme was agreed by all parties, which makes you question the commitment of government to really delivering universal healthcare,” he said.

Some 105 patients were waiting on trolleys across Cork hospitals on Monday morning, and 96 yesterday, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s TrolleyWatch figures.

“Every week, we are seeing out-of-control trolley numbers in CUH and the Mercy hospital. It is clear that any progress on Sláintecare has not delivered for Cork and especially for the people in dire need of a functioning health service,” Mr Gould said.