Cork TD: Ireland deserves a health service that works

BUDGET 2024 signalled a shocking but clear message from government - they have thrown in the towel on the health service.

For the first time in a number of years, additional spending on health was less than €1billion.

The HSE themselves have been clear that this will essentially result in cuts in the health service. The government has refused to listen. They do not want to know.

The consequences will be felt widely across all health services in Cork, which will be forced to limp from crisis to crisis again next year.

Instead of properly resourcing our hospitals, we are faced with a recruitment freeze. Instead of building a dynamic healthforce, we are faced with a ban on new medicines. And instead of a government with ambition for our health service, we are faced with failed policies and a disastrous budget.

The crisis in Emergency Departments will deepen. Patients will continue to languish on trolleys.

In October, 1,467 people were left without a bed in emergency Departments in Cork. With 1,034 of these in CUH, it earned the title of second most overcrowded hospital in the state. That is not what the staff, families or most importantly patients in Cork deserve.

There will be setbacks across mental health, disabilities, and in key clinical strategies such as cancer, cardiovascular and maternity care. There will be no new money for patients in need of new medicines which become available next year.

With three government ministers, and a government party spokesperson on health, in Cork, the situation for our health service has never been worse.

Despite huge commitment by staff who are working in hospitals that are on their knees, things continue to get worse. I want to extend our thanks to all the staff in healthcare services across Cork who day after day show up for their patients and do their best in extremely difficult settings.

By the end of September, 51,214 people in Cork were on hospital waiting lists. 

These figures are stark - almost 3,000 people waiting for GI Endoscopy in the Mercy hospital, more than 7,000 people on a waiting list in CUH for longer than 18 months, and more than 41,000 waiting for outpatient procedures.

Every single one of these people are in need of healthcare intervention. They have families who are worried. Budget 2024 has effectively abandoned these people to waiting lists.

Many of those on waiting lists could be effectively treated in an elective hospital. But we still have no elective hospital in Cork. For years now, the government have made announcement after announcement. The elective hospital, to be built in Glanmire, has been nothing more than an election promise for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

For more than 50,000 people in Cork, it is a shred of hope in an otherwise dire situation in health.

Despite promises in Slaintecare, Blarney, Glanmire and Mayfield are all without Primary Care Centres. People in these areas are forced onto public transport to see their GP.

There is no timeline for these facilities. Yet, I am now hearing very credible rumours that there is no doctor based in Southdoc Blackpool. This would be the second time Southdoc have tried to close their Blackpool facility.

Thanks to a huge campaign in 2020, we saved the facility, but it appears the HSE are allowing them to follow through with their plan.

This will leave the entire of Cork’s Northside, from Glanmire to Gurranabraher, without an out of hours doctor service.

All of that will be on the head of every single member of government and every single TD who refused to support a Sinn Féin motion to reverse this decision. They cannot say they were not warned.

And it is further proof, not that we needed it, that this government has thrown in the towel on health, thrown in the towel on patients, and thrown in the towel on healthcare workers.

Sinn Féin will never throw in the towel on our health services, those who need to avail of them, or those who work within them.

Our Alternative Budget showed that, unlike the Government, we are serious about tackling long waiting times and delivering universal healthcare.

Sinn Féin has a plan to fix the health service, starting with a major €1.3 billion investment in the first year. This is part of a multi-year plan to deliver an Irish National Health Service which ends the two-tier health system and removes cost barriers to healthcare.

For too long under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, our health service has lurched from crisis the crisis. We can do so much better.

Patients, their families and health staff deserve a health system that works. It’s time to start fixing our health service. It’s time for change.