End flawed health budgeting before patients pay the price this winter – Sherlock
End flawed health budgeting before patients pay the price this winter – Sherlock - The Labour Party
- Minister fails to guarantee jobs for graduate nurses despite mounting staffing pressures.
- Cuts to community care risk pushing more people into already overcrowded hospitals.
Labour health spokesperson Marie Sherlock TD has demanded that the Minister for Health guarantee jobs for graduate nurses, protect community care and produce a credible winter plan. Raising HSE spending at Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil today, Deputy Sherlock warned that Government’s flawed budgeting and staffing restrictions are leaving patients exposed as hospitals enter winter under severe pressure.
Deputy Sherlock said:
“Earlier this year, the Minister promised rigorous oversight and transparent reporting of HSE funding. This was supposed to be the year without a supplementary budget, when agency spending would fall. Instead, Government is heading towards the second largest HSE deficit in the history of the health service.
“Patients face the consequences of that failure. In Cork, CT scanners stand idle because services lack sanctioned staff. The National Neonatal Transport Service faces a threat to its work transporting babies because maternity cover has not been approved for the end of October.
“Internal HSE documents show hospitals already relying heavily on surge beds. At the start of October, their use was 88% higher in the South West than at the same point last year, 51% higher in the West and North West, and 50% higher in Dublin and South. Winter has yet to begin.
“Government cannot keep setting budgets that fail to reflect the care people need. HSE replies to my parliamentary questions show it is only forecasting next year’s demand after receiving its allocation. Planning must account for both patient numbers and the complexity of their needs.
“The staffing figures expose the contradictions. Direct pay is €133 million below budget to October, while agency spending is €250 million above budget. Government is restricting direct recruitment while paying more for agency cover. Yet today in the Dáil, the Minister failed to guarantee jobs for graduate nurses.
“The Minister must end these recruitment restrictions, employ graduate nurses and protect community services. She must set out how hospitals will cope this winter and fund the health service according to actual need. Patients and staff need those decisions now.”