News

9,137 added to public outpatient and inpatient/day case waiting lists in May, as 808,447 now on some form of NTPF waiting list; Around 1 in 5 of the Irish population find themselves waiting for public hospital care;  Programme for Government must include clear financial commitments to open additional beds and fill hospital consultant posts to tackle the waiting list backlog and plan for continued delivery of care in a COVID-19 environment. IHCA President Dr Donal O’Hanlon: “COVID-19 presents major challenges for the provision of timely care in our acute public hospitals and acute mental health units. The Government and the health service management must engage with the IHCA and its hospital consultants to develop realistic, practical plans to provide public hospital care in the coming months and agree on how best we can meet the challenges ahead.”

“The IHCA welcomes today’s decision by the Government not to seek an extension of the agreement with Private Hospitals, which will end on 30th June. 

13,231 added to public outpatient and inpatient/day case waiting lists in April, as 796,603 now on some form of NTPF waiting list; Delays in providing care to non-COVID patients of private and public hospitals and cancellation of surgeries during COVID-19 crisis will increase waiting lists further; Urgent implementation of the 2018 National Development Plan and Capacity Review recommendations to put in place an additional 2,600 acute hospital beds and 4,500 community care beds is now more important than ever and needs to be funded without delay.   The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has, today, (Saturday, 16 May 2020), renewed its call for the urgent implementation of the 2018 National Development Plan (NDP) and Capacity Review recommendations to put in place an additional 2,600 acute hospital beds and 4,500 community care beds across our health service. 

Acknowledgment by Fianna Fáil that private hospital ‘contract not working’ and must be reviewed welcome;

Over the past week, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has, on behalf of our members, engaged with the Health Service Executive (HSE) on the issue of working arrangements for the provision of care to all patients during the COVID-19 emergency.

On 30 March last, the Government announced it had reached agreement with private hospitals across the State to use their facilities for the treatment of both Covid-19 and non Covid-19 patients.   Approximately, 500 consultants working at these hospitals who currently treat private patients only are to receive temporary HSE locum contracts to cover their work during the COVID-19 crisis period.   Many of these consultants have expressed concern about the terms of such contracts and specifically, their negative impact on the patients they currently treat.    Under the proposed terms of these contracts, consulting rooms will be forced to shut to outpatients, for both current and future private outpatients.    Nationally, a large number of outpatient consultations will be impacted as a result. This will have considerable knock-on detrimental impacts on the quality of care received by these patients and by all patients accessing hospital services.   Examples of treatments currently undertaken at these consulting rooms include patients with possible cancer-related symptoms, post-operative wounds or blocked catheter issues.    Patients availing of these services are also naturally concerned, with private clinics receiving many queries from patients who have concerns about their ongoing care and treatment.  

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association is the representative body for over 90% of all hospital consultants. Our members are to the fore of the current national effort to contain and treat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association today (Tuesday 24 March 2020) has welcomed the decision by the Government to introduce further restrictions to contain the spread of coronavirus. 

President Dr Donal O’Hanlon said: 

Dr Donal O’Hanlon, President of the IHCA said:    “We welcome today’s announcement from An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, on the Government’s latest response to COVID-19.    “Hospital consultants are very supportive of the Government measures announced today. The new measures are a necessary step towards facing the unprecedented challenge that the virus presents, namely, the increased risk of community transmission and the priority to now delay the spread of the virus in the period ahead.    “The IHCA and our hospital consultant members have been working closely with the Minister and Department of Health, HSE and our public health experts as the situation has developed and this engagement is ongoing to support efforts to delay and manage the spread and impact of the virus.    “In particular, at the level of our acute public hospitals, significant work is underway to better prepare our acute hospitals for the escalation in demand from coronavirus infected patients. However, our ICU facilities will be challenged, particularly, as we are starting from a position of under resourcing in these units.    “This makes a responsible response from the public even more important. We strongly urge the public and patients to continue to follow the best practice advice of our public health experts who are positioned to give the most appropriate advice over the coming weeks.    “The virus will test all healthcare staff and place huge responsibilities and burdens upon us all. As we have always done, consultants and all front-line hospital staff are working together and facing this challenge as a team, our focus remains on supporting our patients.”    ENDS