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'We must grasp the nettle': The health service is getting an unprecedented €4bn boost

The funding allows for hundreds of new beds.

Updated at 3.45pm

THE GOVERNMENT IS pumping an extra €4 billion into the Department of Health as part of Budget 2021.

The health budget was set at more than €17 billion last year, already a record amount even before an additional €2 billion was required due to the pandemic.

The unprecedented increase comes amid a Budget set against the assumption that not only will there be a no-deal Brexit next year, but that Covid-19 will remain a major public health concern throughout 2021, and that a vaccine may not be widely available.

However, announcing the measures, Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath highlighted that Ireland has already signed up to the European Union’s advanced purchase agreements for a medically-approved vaccine, when or if one becomes available.

The new funding announced today is aimed at a combination of shoring up the health service against the continued challenges posed by Covid-19, but also to expand existing services.

It includes funding to continue providing 100,000 tests a week, personal protective equipment for frontline healthcare workers, and all other Covid-19 action plan measures already announced this year.

The extra funds are also earmarked for:

  • “Immediate actions to reduce waiting lists”, namely 100,000 additional inpatient and day-care procedures through investment in public hospitals, spare capacity in private hospitals, and using the National Treatment Fund 
  • An additional 1,146 acute beds
  • An “permanent increase” in the number of critical care beds, from 255 pre-Covid to 321 by the end of next year
  • 1,250 new community beds in 2021, including more than 600 new rehabilitation beds
  • Five million additional home care hours, aimed to help alleviate community waiting lists for home care, as well as supporting hospital avoidance and delayed discharges
  • The implementation of the Sláintecare public-only consultant contract
  • The accelerated implemented of a number of strategies “including the National Cancer Strategy, the National Maternity Strategy, the National Trauma Strategy, as well as the rollout of other social care strategies”
  • €5 million to community-based dementia services and supports
  • Extra funding for cancer screening
  • €50 million for new drugs
  • €25 million for Healthy Ireland and the National Drugs Strategy
  • €38 million for new measures under the national mental health strategy, Sharing The Vision
  • €100 million for new disability measures, including supports for 1,700 school leavers, respite services, and increased personal assistant hours
  • 16,000 additional posts across the healthcare sector

“Our experience of Covid-19 has reminded all of us that our health service is a core public good, important not only for medical services, but a bedrock of the nation’s social and economic well being,” Minister McGrath told the Dáil.

Even before Covid-19 arrived to our country, our health service faced deep-seated and systemic challenges, and for too long, the resources we have allocated have failed to resolve them.
Addressing these challenges requires a step change in our approach. We must grasp the nettle, implement Sláintecare and redouble our commitment to a publicly funded universally accessible health service.

The Irish Medical Organisation welcomed many of the measures laid out in today’s Budget, but its president Padraig McGarry stressed the need to keep the momentum up.

“It is tragic that it took a pandemic to finally get the investment that our health services have needed for over a decade,” he said in a statement, adding that any investment aimed at boosting capacity in areas where it is already below the recommended levels must be sustained until it reaches the desired levels.

One such area is beds, where McGarry said the number still needs to be increased by around 5,000.

The statement added that the Budget has done little to attract new consultants in the 500 vacant posts currently in the HSE.

Reacting to the extra funding for disability services, community engagement manager with Inclusion Ireland Mark O’Connor said: “The devil will be in the detail and we must see the necessary delivery plans to back up these commitments.”

“We would also seek assurances that there will be a multi-annual commitment to moving the remaining people out of institutions over the lifetime of this government.”

The calls for commitments to more consistent health service funding were echoed by the INMO’s Phil Ní Sheaghdh:

“Health funding cannot be like a tap – switched on and off from year to year. We need to see multi-annual, clear commitments to building capacity, getting staffing right, and moving to a universal healthcare model. The money needs to be spent well.

“There are clear funding needs in the short term for Covid, but the government cannot take its eye off the ball for medium and long-term reforms.”

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    Mute Michael Maher
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    Oct 13th 2020, 2:49 PM

    4 billion into a bottomless pit.

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    Mute Niall Sheridan
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    Oct 13th 2020, 2:40 PM

    How about dealing with the other epidemic in the country? The huge backlog of waiting lists for treatment.

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    Mute Monster Munch
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    Oct 13th 2020, 2:43 PM

    @Niall Sheridan: “The extra funds are also earmarked for:

    “Immediate actions to reduce waiting lists, namely 100,000 additional inpatient and day-care procedures through investment in public hospitals, spare capacity in private hospitals, and using the National Treatment Fund ” from the article. This should have happened a while back. But better late than never and all that.

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    Mute Mr_Bumkee
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    Oct 13th 2020, 3:00 PM

    @Niall Sheridan: Yeah good job reading the actual proposal there Niall. Swing and a miss. Complaining for the sake of complaining.

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    Mute Stephen Small
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    Oct 13th 2020, 2:59 PM

    Grasping the nettle would involve actually tackling the gross mismanagement of the health service, not just tossing an extra few billion at it. Yes, the money is required to help with the Covid 19 readiness and mitigation. But as others have said, this is like throwing the money into a black hole.

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    Mute Twitruser2020
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    Oct 13th 2020, 2:47 PM

    Hopefully the black hole will not just absorb the funding and in a year’s time the trolley crisis will be back again. Need to keep a tight rein on spending and get senior management in every fortnight to explain spending for further accountability. If the tax payer can see where the money is going then I wouldn’t mind paying more taxes.

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    Mute Tom Harpur Photography
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    Oct 13th 2020, 4:54 PM

    @Twitruser2020: it’s more doctors and nurses that are needed in the Health service not more secretaries and and admin staff and higher up staff. Boots on the ground is what’s needed.

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    Mute Aidan O' Neill
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    Oct 13th 2020, 5:37 PM

    @Twitruser2020: the problem being ministers and Government departments have no idea how to spend money properly either (see children’s hospital, broadband scheme etc.). They wouldn’t even notice if the money is misspent by the HSE

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    Mute Itsonlyme
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    Oct 13th 2020, 2:56 PM

    Won’t hold my breath but hopefully nursing staff get some sort of wage increase out of it.

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    Mute Niall Lee
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    Oct 13th 2020, 3:13 PM

    @Itsonlyme: That won’t happen no hse workers will get a pay increase due to covid

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    Mute Mike Keane
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    Oct 13th 2020, 4:12 PM

    @Itsonlyme: There was only money for 3 super junior ministers pay rise.

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    Mute Shane McGrath
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    Oct 13th 2020, 3:14 PM

    Sounds great. More beds for an already stretched labour force. Wonder how much of this will filter to the most undervalued and underpaid professionals in our modern society? Professional nursing needs a serious boost. Nursing wages need a boost. They are LONG-OVERDUE.

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    Mute Phil Keenan
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    Oct 13th 2020, 3:59 PM

    4 billion more down the HSE black hole

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    Mute Shakka1244
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    Oct 13th 2020, 4:31 PM

    Cannot think of a better example of “throwing good money after bad”

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    Mute Declan McArdle
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    Oct 13th 2020, 4:37 PM

    “We’re gonna need a bigger hole.”

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