Dáil debates

Thursday, 3 October 2024

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

 

12:20 pm

Photo of Jack ChambersJack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and others have secured record levels of investment in our health system. This is making a difference for patients, families and communities across our country. Over €25 billion is being spent in 2025. The recent budget will see a further €180 million in new measures, including support for cancer care, cardiovascular and stroke care as well as rare diseases. The impact of this investment in healthcare by the Government is seen in the very significant achievements Ireland has made in the last decade in health outcomes. We are among a small group of only seven EU countries where life expectancy is above 82 years, and we are seeing the impact of that across a number of metrics.

We know we have to do more, which is why the Minister for Health has set out a very ambitious capital plan to address the demand for surgery and an elective plan within that. He has set out the development of four elective hospitals at two sites in Dublin, one in Connolly and one at the children’s hospital in Crumlin, one in Cork and one in Galway. Surgical hubs are also being delivered in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Waterford. This complements the wider focus of the Government on the primary care system, with many patients who would have otherwise presented to emergency departments being triaged through community healthcare and supported through the community health service with chronic disease management and a whole other range of areas.

We have also increased bed capacity. We have constructed over 1,000 new and replacement community-based beds throughout the country. Budget 2025 provided funding for 160 new community beds and 455 upgraded community beds. It is planned to provide an additional 3,000 new hospital beds and 350 replacement beds by 2031.

The Government is providing unprecedented resources supporting the recruitment of front-line workers in healthcare, including doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, while also addressing the capital needs in our health system with a changing demographic. The Minister is advancing that through acute hospitals, some of which are in the midlands region, through the wider provision of new beds in the hospital groups.

The Minister will be able to provide detail on further plans on the Deputy’s specific question on an elective hospital for the midlands. I have set out the briefing I have received on the various surgical hubs and also the elective capacity planned, which has a good regional spread. It is important that patients in the midlands and elsewhere have access to improved elective care. In future, our overall capital investment will ensure we have a greater number of elective beds in the hospital system, so that the acute hospital system can manage the presentations that occur day to day. This will allow greater certainty for patients who are waiting for elective care on an ongoing basis.

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