Lack of coronavirus planning no surprise
Given the concern over the coronavirus which has spread across many countries in Europe and which an expert told this newspaper on Tuesday is bound to reach our shores, it is worrying that GPs have not been issued with any specialist equipment such as masks or protective suits.
GPs are the gateway to the health service and it is inevitable, in spite of warnings to the contrary, that people who suspect they may have the virus will visit their family surgery for advice or diagnosis.
That puts the doctor sat risk, but also has the potential to contaminate the surgery, spreading the virus to other patients. In other parts of the UK, some surgeries have had to be deep cleaned after patients with suspected coronavirus have visited their GPs.
But the state of unpreparedness to deal with the virus is only one of the problems facing the health service at the moment. The lack of staff has been well signposted, but now the cost of plugging the gaps is becoming ever more apparent.
In the last three years, almost £80m has been spent on overtime to keep services functioning and a staggering £630m is predicted to be spent on agency staff this year.
All this points to a lack of forward planning on workforce—and there is a warning that around 1,000 consultants will be needed in the next 15 years. Currently, there are around 3,000 vacancies in the health service and plans to fill them have met little success.
And just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, it has been revealed community pharmacists have voted for industrial action, another headache for Health Minister Robin Swann, just when he had settled the nurses strike.
The pharmacists say underfunding of key NHS services mean they cannot afford to pay wholesalers’ bills and left some patients having difficulty getting their medication.
Add in the huge waiting lists for hospital treatment, the time spent getting GP appointments, the closure of some GP practices and it is clear that the NHS, the jewel in the public service crown, is severely tarnished in Northern Ireland.
What else can we expect from a service which has been left to function without any political oversight for three years by our stay away politicians? Those same politicians went back into government without sealing any financial deal to meet the province’s needs. Why should we be surprised that we are unprepared for a possible global pandemic?