Sinn Féin spokesperson on Health, David Cullinane TD, has called on the Minister for Health to present a detailed plan to reduce hospital overcrowding, saying that the problems and solutions are well-versed but that the health service has been missing political leadership.

Deputy Cullinane was responding to comments made by the Minister on Morning Ireland today.

Teachta Cullinane said:

“The Minister for Health demonstrated an incomplete understanding of the problems and solutions for our acute hospital system and wider health service. These are well-versed, and it has been clear for years that some hospitals are managed better than others. The health service is lacking the necessary political leadership to secure investment in safe staffing, safe bed levels, and vital reforms to improve value-for-money.

“What we need is a Minister who will roll out and mandate best practice and a zero tolerance, whole-of-hospital approach to tackling overcrowding across the health service. The Minister must recognise that the trolley crisis has, under Fine Gael, become a year-round crisis, with hospitals dangerously overcrowded week-in-, week-out.

“It is the Minister’s job to present a complete plan, including solutions for GPs, primary care, and local community health and social care services such as home support, step-down care, and rehabilitation. It is often a lack of capacity in the community that leads to people staying too long in hospital when there is no service to discharge their care to. There are also severe waiting lists for diagnostic tests that add to delays.

“We also cannot miss the fact that the health service has been working under a dangerous recruitment embargo with no workforce plan. Many services cannot recruit in the areas where we need more healthcare workers.

“More funding is needed in some areas, but far better management of taxpayer money is needed to clamp down on misspending, expensive outsourcing, and deliver the reforms and modernisation programmes that are needed to tackle the serious inefficiencies across the health service.”