The newly published Health Information and Quality Authority’s (HIQA) overview report highlights several issues including poor physical infrastructure, capacity issues and stretched workforces.
Fine Gael’s spokesperson for health Colm Burke said that nurses and doctors had reacted well to the pandemic but that other qualified employees could be utilised more efficiently.
"There’s an issue in relation to the way we have compartmentalised people into particular categories," he said. "We have general doctors doing work that they should be doing. Nurses have academic qualifications but have we given them a huge amount of additional roles? Simple things like dressing beds and stuff like that, why aren’t we allowing more care assistants on the wards so nurses can be used for medical care?"
Burke called for a review on how to get the best out of employees with particular qualifications.
"Offering a contract to consultants of €250,000 a year who are required to work 37 hours a week, that’s it, you can’t do any more work outside of that and I think it will be a huge waste of resources," he said.
Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould cited the trolley numbers at Cork University Hospital as he called for capital investment in the health service.
"The announcement of only €250,000 to progress the much needed elective hospital in Cork was a major blow for staff working in overcrowded, underfunded facilities," he said. "It shows the government’s reluctance to make the real innovative changes we need to increase capacity."
President of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) Dr Ina Kelly said the report highlights a crisis in the HSE.
"This is not something we can or should accept and as Government now considers measures for the budget, we need to see a significant ramping up of sustainable investment in our services that will deliver timely patient care in a system that is well resourced and properly staffed," she said.
