A&E plan won’t bear fruit in 2005

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney admitted yesterday that a key part of her 10-point plan to solve the Accident and Emergency crisis - the provision of three acute medical units in major hospitals - will not be delivered this year.

The head of the Health Service Executive (HSE), Pat Mc Loughlin, told a Dáil health committee on Thursday that none of the units would be built this year.

But Ms Harney said they would be provided, but not this year. Cost was a factor, she added.

The units are earmarked for Tallaght, St Vincent’s and Beaumont hospitals, all in Dublin. The Beaumont unit has been estimated to cost €17.5 million.

Speaking at the annual conference of the Psychiatric Nurses’ Association (PNA), in Tralee, the minister said she hoped to see more autonomy in health going to the regions with fewer people having to go to Dublin for treatment in the future. She did not accept the view that problems in the health service could not be solved.

“There are easier ministerial positions in the Cabinet and ones that are less frustrating and less pressurised,” she remarked.

“I didn’t go to Hawkins House (Department of Health HQ) for an easy life, nor can I come up with all the answers. Honest analysis of the problems is necessary to solve the problem.”

Ms Harney said it was unacceptable to have elderly people spending two, three or four days on hospital trolleys, but said problems could not be put right overnight. She referred to the role of the new Health Service Executive and said lots of pieces had to be put together to bring about the kind of changes people expected in the service, but she and the Government were committed to successfully reforming it.

“There’s no country in Europe, except Luxembourg, that spends so much on health per capita - we spend 33% more than the UK - but the public want to see increased spending matched with a better result for patients,” Ms Harney added.