A local county councillor has accused the Minister for Health of approving a service plan which will result in “drastic” cuts and increasing waiting times for hospital procedures.
Fianna Fail councillor Mary Hoade says elements of the HSE plan for 2012 signed off by Dr James Reilly are “shocking”.
The Headford politician is especially concerned about the loss of up to 900 beds in public nursing homes across the country and the increase in waiting time (up to nine months ) for elective procedures.
Slamming the Minister for the proposed reduction in community nursing home beds she said this was an “appalling” way to treat older people.
“There is no justification for the closure of these beds or the ‘small number of units’ which will be considered for total closure this year as outlined in the the service plan,” she stated.
“There is a lot of focus today on the prospect of a minimum of 555 beds closing but the service plan approved by Minister Reilly actually allows for a maximum 898 beds to be closed across the country.”
Cllr Hoade, who is a member of the HSE West’s regional health forum, said this will come as “deeply disturbing” news to many older people and their families.
“It is an appalling way to treat the elderly, most of whom regard these community facilities as their homes. It is also hard to see how there will be any significent benefit to the HSE as staff will have to be redeployed under the Croke Park Agreement to other facilities.”
She claimed the Minister has rowed back on a commitment given last November not to close community units.
“He said ‘I want to put on record that I am a believer in the public nursing home provision and I want to keep that and retain that but I want to see our costs addressed.’- Minister Reilly, RTE This Week Nov 21 2011.”
Cllr Hoade continued that she was particularly concerned about how the health service will manage the further reduction in staff with more than 3,000 people due to leave in the coming weeks and months.
“This Reilly Plan spells out very clearly today that ‘the bulk of the reductions that the HSE is required to deliver in 2012 will impact increasingly directly on frontline services’.The public and health service itself are not prepared for cuts on this scale and the service plan actually includes a dozen risk factors that could see further cuts being imposed through the year.”
She remarked that the plan also points out that decreased hospital activity will impact particularly on elective procedures in hospitals.
“The Minister for Health has actually approved a plan that increases waiting times for procedures. In conjunction with the Special Delivery Unit the HSE will ensure no-one will wait longer than nine months whereas before Minister Reilly decided to cut the National Treatment Purchase Fund, the average waiting time for procedures was just three months.”
Cllr Hoade pointed out there are also “very serious issues” surrounding the Fair Deal nursing home support scheme.
“The Minister must be open and upfront about how the scheme will be managed and funded through 2012. If the Fair Deal Scheme is allowed to collapse while home help hours are cut and public nursing home beds are closed the elderly will rightly wonder what they have done to deserve the treatment they are suffering at the hands of Minister Reilly.”
