For health, it’s ‘a pamphlet of scant detail’ and repeated broken pledges
Doctors hit out at post-Covid plans in Programme
‘We must be realistic about staffing crisis’
HEALTHCARE measures announced in the Programme for Government have failed to address the needs of a system which is at breaking point following the Covid19 crisis, doctors have said.
The Irish Medical Organisation said the first indications were that the plans showed a ‘shocking lack of detail’ and ‘startling omissions’.
Its president, Dr Pádraig McGarry, warned: ‘We are facing a potential second surge of the virus while unprecedented capacity and recruitment and retention issues blight our health system.
‘Allied to the tremendous work of doctors and others in the health service, we have been extremely fortunate to avoid a complete breakdown in our health services so far since the emergence of Covid-19, and this programme is relying on being similarly lucky in future.
‘It is very disappointing that the incoming Government does not appear to fully grasp the need to support patients, doctors and everyone who works in our healthcare system.’
Dr McGarry added: ‘It would represent the most appalling missed opportunity if we failed to learn the lessons regarding healthcare from the Covid-19 crisis.’
The medic cautioned that socialdistancing guidelines and infection control will reduce Ireland’s medical capacity by more than 50%.
He said: ‘The reality is that we need to immediately begin a significant capacitybuilding programme to safeguard patients and enable doctors to do their jobs safely and effectively, so it is unconscionable that these problems are not being addressed through investment in our public health system. We cannot continue to rely on the private system for capacity we know we need.’
He said that doctors on the front line had responded brilliantly to the overwhelming challenge of the Covid-19 crisis in Ireland, and that politicians must now learn lessons from the crisis and empower doctors to do their job properly in a health system that truly values their work.
‘This means a commitment to significantly ramp up investment to address legacy issues that are having a hugely negative effect, such as the ongoing pay disparity among consultants based purely on when they were appointed,’ Dr McGarry said.
‘A health system without doctors is nothing, so the recruitment and retention of specialist medical staff is paramount.’
Dr McGarry said that the lack of detail with regard to public health specialists, and the failure to allow them to become consultants, was particularly disappointing, given their central role in dealing with the pandemic.
‘Having done so much to help the country respond to Covid-19, it is regrettable that our public health experts have not received the recognition they deserve as a consultant specialty which would help enormously to build up capacity,’ he said.
Dr McGarry also criticised the apparent lack of detail in the areas of capacity, general practice and mental health.
He said there had been no specific commitments in terms of retaining current beds, modular builds or public investment for elective procedures. In general practice, Dr McGarry said there has been no recognition of new investment, other than that already agreed in 2019, and no funding for a new GP contract, which has yet to be agreed – despite being in previous programmes for government.
He described the programme’s contribution to mental health as ‘little more than a recitation of policies and aspirations that were announced but never implemented or fulfilled’. He added: ‘We need to be realistic about the staffing crisis in mental health if we are to be serious about providing a fullspectrum mental health service, which is needed now more than ever as we emerge from the Covidinduced isolation.’
However, the IMO president said that his organisation welcomed the plans to introduce free contraception and said that this must signal the start of a comprehensive women’s health programme in general practice.