Health Capacity Review supports all the evidence the IMO has previously put to Government
Critical we have an immediate and frontloaded investment in Acute Hospital Beds, Community Beds and GP Services
Significant challenge in recruiting the medical staff required to deliver on the recommendations of the Review
Thursday 25th January 2018. The Council of the Irish Medical Organisation has welcomed the publication of the Health Capacity Review which supported the analysis and arguments made by the IMO over the past number of years. Dr Hogan said the review laid out the challenges in very stark terms and no one can now be in doubt as to the evidence supporting immediate and major investment in our public health services.
Dr Hogan said; “There is no room for prevarication or evasion any longer. The Government needs to do the maximum required and not make piecemeal efforts over a prolonged period of time, and the idea that this can be dragged out to 2031 is simply not sustainable.” The review is clear that investment across a number of key areas must take place in tandem including increases in acute beds and in community beds and investment in the provision of services in the GP setting.
In relation to the provision of acute beds Dr Hogan said “ It is not a sustainable position for Government to talk about the provision of 2500 beds between now and 2031. The problems we are facing now are enormous and we are running our hospitals at dangerous levels of occupancy so we must have a significant investment in beds now and accelerate this target”.
Speaking on the recommendation to transfer care, particularly chronic care, to GP services Dr Hogan said “The IMO has been putting this concept forward for many years now and while we are in negotiations on the matter Government must bring a sense of urgency to the situation.”
IMO Council expressed concern that the Review did not deal with the challenges we face in staffing our health services. We currently have an unprecedented recruitment and retention crisis and there has been no proactive attempt to deal with the very real barriers that are currently creating a situation where we have 400 consultant vacancies and unfilled GP posts along with an increasing trend of emigration by our trainees. Dr Hogan said “all services must be staffed by appropriately qualified medical professionals and we have concerns that this review may become just another of the many published health reports. We call on Government to act now before it is too late.”
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