No Enda Kenny pledge on trolley crisis

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has refused to pledge to end the trolley crisis in our hospitals over the next five years, if his party is returned to government.

Nor would he pledge to fix the health system, a commitment made before previous elections.

But Mr Kenny said there could be more “progress” in improving public healthcare. He said Fine Gael had a long-term vision of universal healthcare to end the two-tier system.

His comments come after the HSE’s plan for 2016, published earlier this month, warned of the tight financial year ahead. This includes a further saving of €100m, which has yet to be identified. Consultants have warned that patients face a severe crisis in emergency departments over the winter, with significant overcrowding. Health Minister Leo Varadkar, and health chiefs, have agreed new targets for trolley waits. These include ensuring there are no more than 70 patients on trolleys on any any given day. Patients cannot be left on a trolley for more than nine hours and hospitals that exceed their thresholds must cancel surgeries.

Under universal healthcare, hospital groups would evolve into trusts and patients would get the best value.

But the Fine Gael leader, speaking prior to Christmas, refused to commit his party to eliminating trolley waits. He said: “Obviously, these are always challenges. The numbers have fallen now, in terms of trolley waiting lists...we’d like to see that continue to reduce, so that you have the minimum number applying. It’s always stressful for families when these things happen.”

Mr Kenny ran for election in 2007, pledging to “end the scandal of patients on trolleys”. By 2011, in the programme for government, both Fine Gael and Labour had pledged that the two-tier system of unequal access to hospital access “will end”.

Mr Kenny now says that more progress will be made in general in the health system. “Well, what I will repeat is this: now that we have a record of five years of a substantial achievement in terms of rectifying the public finances of the country and jobs creation...we need an infrastructure investment capacity, both in terms of the personnel, doctors, nurses, and so on, but also the infrastructure. Much of it is haphazard... and needs to be changed and reinvested to make it fit for 21st century services.”