finegael.org - polcol

In a misguided attempt to save money, Minister Harney and the HSE are now considering closing a further 1,100 beds which will lead to even longer waiting lists causing chaos for patient care.

In the Fine Gael FairCare policy, Dr James Reilly, TD, sets out how we will end waiting lists in the health service & eliminate the two-tier system, both of which will deliver massive benefits for patients and taxpayers.

There are already 900 hospital beds are closed around the country which is leading to unacceptably long waiting lists for patient treatment and care.
Recent figures released by Fine Gael show that 272,881 bed days were lost in 2009 because patients who had finished their acute phase of treatment had nowhere to go. Because of these delayed discharges, there is an estimated increase of 30% in cancelled operations in 2009.
Rather than fixing the problems in the public system, the Government is paying the private sector to clear the waiting lists through the NTPF.

In 2001, the Government promised that by the end of 2004, no public patients would wait longer than three months for treatment. Despite this promise, we still have over 17,000 patients on NTPF waiting lists, many of whom are waiting more than 6 months for treatment. When you include the people waiting to get onto the NTPF waiting list, this figure doubles to over 40,000 patients. Outpatient waiting lists are significantly worse with an estimated 150,000 patients on outpatient waiting lists with some patients waiting as long as 8 years for treatment.

Fine Gael Solution
Fine Gael rejects plans to close an additional 1,100 beds in the coming year. This money savings measure will only diminish services for patients, making access even worse.

Fine Gael’s FairCare Policy sets out how we will end hospital waiting lists in the health service and eliminate the two-tier system. This reform is based on the Dutch system of health care where the average waiting time for an outpatient appointment is two to three weeks, but if a GP feels you’re an urgent case you can be seen in 24 hours by the appropriate specialist.

We cannot continue to pour money into the broken health system where there are hundreds on trolleys waiting for admission to acute beds and hundreds of thousands of bed days lost due to delayed discharges. FairCare will slash waiting lists by establishing a special delivery unit like the successful one in Northern Ireland. Finally, we will deliver Universal Health Insurance for everyone removing the two-tier divide so that all patients have equal access to treatment on the basis of need.