Statement from IHCA re capital expenditure in HSE

Statement from IHCA re capital expenditure in HSE

Thursday February 9th 2017: The President of the Irish Hospital Consultants Associations (IHCA), Dr Tom Ryan, today outlined his concerns that the cumulative impact of cuts in capital investment over the last decade in acute hospital facilities and equipment is compounding the delays in providing the high quality care that patients deserve.

Dr Ryan said: “Inadequate and antiquated equipment is one of the critical factors contributing to growing waiting lists and the cancellation of elective surgeries, as acute hospitals simply just do not have the infrastructure, in terms of equipment and bed capacity, to treat the number of patients requiring medical and surgical care. In effect our acute hospital infrastructure is crumbling due to the lack of investment over the last decade. This is forcing hospitals to ration the delivery of healthcare to patients on a daily basis.”

“The reality is that the gaping bed capacity and equipment problems are not being addressed with any sense of urgency. Nothing approaching adequate funding has been included in the multi-annual capital budgets to address these critical deficits. While we welcome the State’s commitments to develop the National Children’s Hospital and the relocation of older maternity hospitals to new sites, the reality is that funding for these essential and pressing developments has not been formally provided. Furthermore, the funding to maintain basic current facilities and equipment and expand bed capacity throughout our overstretched acute hospital is totally inadequate.”

The IHCA President said that he “cannot stress strongly enough the pressing and immediate need to increase the number of acute, ICU and rehabilitation beds required to provide patients with the care they deserve. Any realistic plan, to relieve emergency department overcrowding and address the growing waiting lists, must include an increase in acute hospital bed capacity, otherwise the health system will continue to fail the public at large. There is an obvious need for new ideas and fresh thinking in our health service.”

“It is no coincidence that the ongoing consultant recruitment and retention crisis is escalating in an environment of a crumbling hospital infrastructure, the persistent breaching of contracts by employers and the discrimination against new entrant consultants. There are hundreds of vacant consultant posts across the country which will never be filled unless investment is made in both our hospitals and our doctors,” concluded Dr Ryan.

ENDS

For further information

James Dunny, FleishmanHillard +353 86 388 3903

Fiona Murphy, FleishmanHillard +353 87 819 4464