Hospitals get E85m boost for staff and equipment

ALMOST E85 million is to be spent on equipping and staffing new hospital facilities around the country — some of which have been lying idle for months.

Health Minister Micheál Martin said a cap on public sector appointments in health was being lifted to allow the appointment of 1,200 nurses, doctors and other staff members needed to run the units.

The units would be operational as soon as the necessary equipment and staff became available in some cases that would be a matter of two or three months.

However the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO), which welcomed the funding, warned there could be a problem in getting the necessary staff.

"These new services, however welcome and required they may be, cannot become fully operational unless and until the Government deals with the continuing shortage of nurses in Ireland," said INO general secretary Liam Doran.

Irish Patient's Association welcomed the funding. Chairman Steve McMahon said the provision of more than 200 patient beds was good news and hoped the money needed to resource future developments would be provided as soon as they were completed.

It is estimated the units, when fully operational, will increase in-patient and day case activity by up to 40,000 patients in a year.

Around E400 million has been spent under the National Development Fund on building the facilities but the money needed to equip and run them had not been provided.

Labour's health spokeswoman Liz McManus said the funding for idle health facilities was welcome but hoped it wasn't just an unachievable "swan song" of a minister on the verge of leaving his job.

"Minister Martin has become a serial announcer on such issues but this pledge on these matters must be delivered upon speedily," she said.

Mr Martin said the opening of the new units, combined with the 709 beds provided for in phase one of the bed capacity initiative, meant the Government remained on target to providing an additional 3,000 beds over 10 years as outlined in the Health Strategy.

Fine Gael's health spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell welcomed the announcement. However, she said there was no information on the full year cost of the 1,200 staff being promised.

Mr Martin said both he and outgoing Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy agreed on the funding last July. He confirmed the decision had been made before Mr McCreevy was announced as Ireland's EU Commissioner.

Asked if he felt frustrated at the time taken to provide the funding, Mr Martin said action had to be taken at "macro level" to get the public finances right.

Mr Martin said a reasonable approach had to be taken because it was a significant investment.