Simon Harris ‘deaf to the suffering of patients’

Hospital consultants have unanimously passed a vote of no confidence in Health Minister Simon Harris.

The decision was taken by the leadership of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) at an emergency council meeting.

The IHCA represents 90% of consultants working in public health and mental health in Ireland. The association has approximately 3,100 members.

The meeting of hospital consultant representatives was called to discuss the deteriorating conditions across public hospitals and the impact this is having on public patients.

The numbers of patients in public hospitals waiting on trolleys have been on the rise in recent weeks, and with the flu season approaching along with the traditional, winter surge in patient numbers, many in the sector are anticipating that the situation could get even worse in the coming months.

The vote of no confidence is, according to hospital consultants, an indication of the extent to which consultants have lost faith in the ability of Mr Harris to provide timely, quality hospital care or to improve conditions for patients.

They say the minister has failed to honour commitments to engage with consultant representatives to address the crisis in our acute public hospitals.

A decision to significantly escalate the IHCA’s Care Can’t Wait campaign was also approved at the emergency meeting, with an intensification of activities expected over the coming weeks.

IHCA has not specified the nature of these activities.

The Care Can’t Wait campaign emphasises the impact of long waiting times on patients and the need to address the consultant “brain drain”.

The IHCA says lengthy waiting lists are largely due to a shortage of specialist consultants and that almost one in five permanent consultant posts in the public health service are either unfilled or filled by temporary appointments.

IHCA president Dr Donal O’Hanlon said that consultants simply no longer have confidence in the minister to solve the issues that have emerged in the sector.

“We do not believe that he has the authority, understanding, inclination, or experience to deliver timely, quality hospital care for patients,” said Dr O’Hanlon.

“He has become increasingly complacent and deaf to the suffering of patients across Ireland.

“After three years in the office, Minister Harris has presided over an unacceptable increase of 153, 914 patients on the outpatient waiting list since he became minister for health. This amounts to a 37% increase, or almost five additional patients every hour. While over the same period, the number of patients treated on trolleys has increased by 36% since May 2016.

“Ensuring all patients can access timely, quality hospital care is a challenge — hospital consultants working on wards and caring for patients know and live it each day. But it’s not an excuse for doing nothing.

“Consultants can no longer support a minister who is shirking his responsibility, as minister for health, to fix our health service and is failing to engage with the IHCA.”