It would be “unforgivable” to fail to transition hospitals to a fully six-day and ultimately seven-day service, the Minister for Health told the IMO AGM.
Addressing doctors in Killarney on 11 April, Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said there was a “unique moment” presented by the terms of the public-only consultant contract (POCC) and the agreement with unions for seven-day restoring. Currently, 69 per cent of consultants hold the POCC.
During her speech, the Minister acknowledged the “enormous commitment” of doctors, who she said worked under “sustained pressure”.
According to the Minister, consultant numbers had increased by 49 per cent since 2020, while over 2,000 additional NCHDs had been recruited in the same period.
The Minister spoke about visits she had made to hospitals at weekends, where diagnostics and other facilities were not in use. In one hospital, a CT scanner in an area adjoining the emergency department (ED) was not staffed. Six of the 60 patients in the ED required a CT to determine whether they required admission. In another hospital, she said she could have “done cartwheels” through the corridors on a Saturday, while on a Friday “it is so busy you are barely able to move left or right”.
It did not “make any sense” that expensive equipment and facilities would not be fully utilised across the week.
“And yes, we need more people, but at least we know when we get more people they will work in a particular way that enables that sort of flow. If it’s only running Monday to Friday, we are both failing ourselves and we are failing the public.”
The Minister referenced the growing demands associated with population growth and an ageing demographic. In the first three months of this year, she said, an additional 7,500 people aged over 75 had presented to EDs.
Speaking later in the day, HSE CEO Ms Anne O’Connor said: “What we are seeing across our acute hospitals is extraordinary activity, but it also reflects a system under sustained structural pressure, rather than short-term strain.”
In his inaugural address as IMO President, Prof Matthew Sadlier called for a major investment programme to address the estimated shortfall of 5,000 hospital beds nationally.
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