Health spending rise negligible, warns Harney
“I can tell you for certain that the rate of increase on health spending will be negligible in comparison with any other year in the past 11 years,” Ms Harney revealed yesterday.
“We have multiplied health spending four and a half times from what it was, say 11 years ago. We will not be increasing health spending of that kind of order at all,” the minister warned.
However, Ms Harney, who was speaking after she launched a 10-year blueprint for the future development of Irish nursing and midwifery, refused to go into detail on the kind of spending proposed.
“I cannot give details of the annual rate because the budget has not been finalised, except to say it will be fiscally very, very challenging.”
Health spending increased by 9% to a record €16.2 billion this year. In money terms, it was €1.1bn and was less than in previous years. At the time, Ms Harney said it was still twice the average rate of increase in the EU.
“It’s not as large as in other years and it will require very prudent management by the Health Service Executive in particular. The focus has to be on getting more out of what we put in,” she said last December.
Asked yesterday if she supported bringing to an end the automatic entitlement to medical cards to all those over the age of 70, Ms Harney said she was not ruling anything in or out because everything was being looked at.
“In everything we do we will be fair and equitable. Those that need most will get most,” she said.
At the launch of the new book Nursing and Midwifery in Ireland — a Strategy for Professional Development in a Changing Health Service, Ms Harney said the ratio of healthcare assistants to nurses in Ireland was poor compared with other European countries.
Some of the duties performed by nurses, now playing an enhanced role in the health service, needed to be transferred to healthcare assistants.
“Ireland does not compare favourably with many other European countries and, even within Ireland there is huge variation in the ratio of nurses to healthcare assistants,” she said.
“We need to look very robustly in the context of enhancing the role of the nurse and providing responsive services to patients. They will be the areas that we will need to address in the coming years in the Irish healthcare system.”
There are 36,737 nurses and midwives on the register of nurses maintained by An Bord Altranais and they comprise the largest component of Irish health service employees at 35%.
Nursing and Midwifery in Ireland is written by Yvonne O’Shea, chief executive officer of the National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery.
Her strategy, based, in part, on a comprehensive series of interviews with 115 senior figures in the health services, focuses on areas of professional development, the potential for stronger leadership and the need to build up skills.
