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The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has rejected the Taoiseach’s claims that the solution to the trolley crisis is for hospital staff to cancel their annual leave over the Christmas period.

Note: Dr O’Hanlon is available for interview – please contact James Dunny (086 388 3903) to arrange

9 October 2018 - The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has outlined its grave concern that the 2019 Health Budget is unlikely to address the serious capacity deficits that are delaying the provision of public hospital care to patients, unless urgent capacity needs in our acute hospitals are addressed. The Association outlined in great detail in its pre-budget submission to the Minister for Health and other government Ministers that underfunding of public hospitals has led to record numbers of patients on trolleys and on waiting lists.

 

Saturday 6th October 2018: The widespread and chronic shortage of hospital consultants, beds and other facilities in public hospitals is severely impacting patient care across the country, according to the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA). At their Annual Conference in Galway today, the IHCA President, Dr Donal O’Hanlon, said a combination of having one of the lowest numbers of specialist hospital consultants in Europe and having over 500 unfilled posts is resulting in patients not being able to access timely medical care. The IHCA today held its 30th Annual Conference in Galway, which was attended by hospital consultants from across Ireland.

 27 September 2018: The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said that the 2019 Health Budget must increase the funding for public hospitals if the Government wishes to avoid record waiting lists and an increasing trolleys crisis next year.  The Association said that each year over the past decade the health budget, and especially that for public hospitals, has been inadequately resourced to treat the growing number of patients that require hospital care. Both inpatient and outpatient waiting lists have increased by 40% in the last four years, which cannot be addressed properly without significantly increased funding to expand public hospital capacity.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said that the Government must end the discrimination against new entrant Consultants before public hospital care and the population that depends upon it are irreparably damaged. The IHCA President, Dr Donal O’Hanlon, has taken the exceptional action of outlining the stark realities in letters to the Taoiseach, Ministers for Health, Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and the main political party leaders and spokespersons on health, finance and expenditure. Dr O’Hanlon said that our acute hospital and mental health services will increasingly fail our patients due to the large number of approved permanent consultant posts that cannot be filled as a consequence of the discriminatory salary cuts imposed by the State on new entrant Consultants. 

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The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has said that it welcomes the confirmation in the Public Service Pay Commission Report of the significant crisis in the recruitment and retention of hospital consultants.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association notes the publication today of the Sláintecare Implementation Strategy by the Minister for Health, Simon Harris. The IHCA believes that the Sláintecare Report is inherently flawed as it fails to provide sufficient solutions for the biggest capacity deficits in our acute hospitals. There is a critical shortage of hospital beds, consultants, other frontline staff and equipment which is impeding our ability to care for patients. The proposal to introduce 2,600 new beds over the next 15 years is insufficient and fails to immediately address the very urgent needs of patients who need access to care in our acute hospitals. The Minister and the HSE need to set out a very clear timetable as to how these shortages, including the insufficient number of consultants, will be addressed over the next five years otherwise we will continue to see unacceptable and growing waiting lists and delays in providing care to the population that depend on our public hospital services.