Pledge to end hospital waiting lists quietly dropped

The Promises: CHARLIE McCREEVY may well live to regret his letter of reassurance on health to Fine Gael leader Michael Noonan just days before the elections.

It read: “In relation to health, I can confirm that the health boards are receiving increases of 15-18% each this year, enabling significant service development in each area. There are no cutbacks being planned or implemented.”

Whatever about cutbacks, Fianna Fáil set out its wildly ambitious target of permanently ending hospital waiting lists and bringing an extra 3,000 hospital beds on stream over the lifetime of the national health strategy.

It planned to build new hospitals under the proposed National Development Finance Agency, which would provide “an unprecedented programme of capital development” to be delivered speedily, with high quality and the maximum value for money.

The party also promised to improve the staffing of our hospitals by expanding the number of nurses working in professional positions, hiring additional consultants and more health professionals, especially in areas such as general practice and emergency facilities.

The Results: Barely a few weeks after McCreevy’s soothing letter that “no cutbacks were on the way”, an array of cost-saving measures and spending cutbacks was announced.

Most dramatic was the cost-saving directive to health boards to freeze the recruitment of 800 clerical and administrative staff immediately.

The directive has sparked controversy as overspending health boards, such as the Western Heath Board, have not only put a freeze on recruitment but also face laying off staff to stay within spending guidelines.

A range of other controversial measures have been put in place, including a hike in the cost of admission to an A&E unit, and a 10 euro increase in the threshold of the drug refund scheme.

The election promise to permanently end hospital waiting lists mysteriously disappeared from FF-PD Programme for Government, while a series of strikes involving junior doctors threaten to send waiting lists back up.

The EU’s decision to reject McCreevy’s idea of a National Development Finance Agency also makes it hard to see how the promise of “an unprecedented programme of capital development” can be delivered.