Harris slammed over life support ‘rationing’
HEALTH Minister Simon Harris is expected to be grilled by the Oireachtas health committee over reports that doctors are being forced to ration life-support care in hospitals.
Fianna Fáil’s spokesman on health, Billy Kelleher, has called on Mr Harris to clarify the situation after it emerged that senior hospital staff feel they are being forced to make ‘life or death’ decisions.
This is due to a shortage of intensive care beds, as the Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association warned ICUs are at their limit.
Mr Kelleher said the Health Minister should now appear before an Oireachtas committee to answer questions on the controversy. He said he will be writing to the chair of the committee to request an urgent meeting on the matter.
‘Senior doctors have outlined how they are forced to ration life support care on a regular basis, with some patients missing out on the care they are entitled to, due to a shortage of beds in our hospitals.
‘No doctor should have to be placed in a situation where they have to determine whether a patient lives or dies due to the need to ration care,’ he said.
‘It is a national shame, and is the darkest reflection yet of Fine Gael’s failure to come to terms with the crisis facing our health service.’
Mr Kelleher said the reports, carried in the Sunday Business Post, made for ‘sombre reading’.
‘Ireland has an ageing population and the demand on our health service will only increase in the years ahead,’ he said.
His comments come after it was revealed that the forthcoming bed capacity review will state that thousands more beds are needed around the country.
The report recommends their should be between 2,000 to 2,500 extra beds by 2030, if health reforms contained in the all-party Sláinte Care Report are implemented.
The estimated capital and annual running costs for 2,500 new acute hospital beds is more than €3.2billion, according to previous HSE figures.
The capital cost would be €2.5billion plus an annual running cost of €766million.
The review further says that if the health reforms are not put in place, and if the situation in the health service does not change, then around 9,000 extra beds would be needed.
It comes after a strained week for the health service last week where a new record of patients on trolleys was set.
The figures peaked at 677 last Wednesday morning.