IHCA: urgent need for new Minister to address critically important issues impacting patient care

IHCA: urgent need for new Minister to address critically important issues impacting patient care

10th May, 2016: The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) today welcomed the appointment of Simon Harris, TD, as the new Minister for Health and said they look forward to collaborating with him on the important issues impacting patient care in Ireland. The association has written to Minister Harris to wish him success in his new role and highlight the need for immediate action to address critical capacity deficits.

In writing to the Minister, the IHCA outlined the urgent need for investment in frontline services to address the severe capacity constraints that exist in acute hospital and mental health services, as they are impacting adversely on the delivery of timely, high quality, safe care to patients.

Dr Gerard Crotty, President of the IHCA, said: “International comparisons confirm that our acute services have one of the lowest numbers of practising doctors, a relatively low number of acute hospital beds and an excessively high bed occupancy rate. In recent years, Ireland has suffered a damaging medical brain drain which has resulted in hundreds of approved hospital consultant posts remaining vacant or, at best, being filled on a temporary or agency basis.”

Dr Crotty continued: “These factors are undermining the provision of care to patients in Ireland. We welcome Minister Harris’s commitment to the development of a 10-year healthcare strategy and the plans he has to address healthcare funding in future but this should not delay immediate investment that is needed to address the capacity constraints that are severely curtailing the delivery of care to patients.”

ENDS

For more information:

James Dunny, FleishmanHillard - +353 6188 417 / + 353 86 388 3903

Fiona Murphy, FleishmanHillard - +353 6188 470 / +353 87 819 4464