We need healthcare, not wishful thinking

THOUGH there has been widespread criticism of the implementation strategy for the first three years of the Sláintecare Plan, we will bide our time before hopping on that bandwagon.

There is much to admire, not least the promised 2,600 extra hospital beds; an increase of €800million to be spent on diagnostic equipment in the community to keep healthcare local rather than centralised in regional hospitals; the expansion of access to free GP care, especially for carers; and the move away from cumbersome paper files to instead creating electronic records.

What is slightly baffling, though, is the fact that much of the strategy still seems to be a wishlist, with many issues yet to be ironed out. It might have been a better idea to wait, and present a more complete and concrete timeline, especially in relation to new hospitals.

The plan envisages the building of three new elective hospitals to address the problem of record waiting lists, which sounds great in principle.

Unfortunately, we know how long the saga of the National Children’s Hospital was drawn out for, and it is hard to see how the planning, tendering and building processes could deliver these new facilities within a decade. That means more elective surgeries cancelled while the number of patients on trolleys breaks new records.

Today, there are 520 people on trolleys in hospitals across the country – a summer record. Indeed, not so long ago this would have been a record at any time of year, never mind in August, traditionally one of the quietest months.

The HSE may well argue that it is peak holiday time, so staff numbers are depleted, but it is peak holiday time for everyone, and a significant percentage of the population as a whole is abroad. Ironically, if for any reason they need to present at A&E overseas, they very likely will be more promptly treated.

The consequence of a summer trolley crisis is that elective surgeries are being cancelled, adding yet more patients to those waiting lists in a vicious cycle of inadequate resources being spread far too thinly.

So while we welcome the broad outline of the strategy, we still believe more must be done in the short term to alleviate the pressure on our hospitals – because if the situation is this bad in August, what will it be like in winter, especially if we are subjected to the brutal weather we endured from last November to March, and if a new and virulent strain of flu hits at the same time?