Comment by Dr Donal O’Hanlon, President of the IHCA, on Sinn Féin’s ‘Protecting Irish Health’ plan

“We welcome and commend this plan. It contains measures which are critical if we are to be ready for what the HSE has predicted will be a winter like no other.
 
“The specific commitment to resolve the two-tier consultant pay issue in order to retain and attract consultants has never been more timely. One in five permanent consultant posts are unfilled in our public hospitals. The HSE itself has confirmed Ireland has the lowest number of consultants in a range of specialties. Before the pandemic hit, over 800,000 people were waiting to see a consultant or receive treatment. What was bad is now worse. 
 
“Minister Donnelly, his Fine Gael predecessor and now Sinn Féin are all in favour of restoring consultant pay parity. Each knows that to fix the problems requires more consultants, beds and capacity. There is no time to lose and the promised winter plan will only work if it contains funded measures on all three of these specifics.” 
 
ENDS 

For more information:
 
Lauren Murphy, 360 – lauren@weare360.ie / (083) 801 5917
Barry Murphy, 360 – barry@weare360.ie / (087) 266 9878