State accused of blaming Covid for lack of health reforms

Laura Magahy resigned as executive director of Sláintecare along with chairperson Dr Tom Keane. File picture: RollingNews.ie

The Government has been accused of trying to minimise the crisis in Sláintecare by blaming the pandemic for a lack of progress.

Members of the opposition have hit out at a "lack of political leadership, a lack of commitment and a lack of courage at the top'' from the health minister and the rest of the Cabinet when it comes to implementing healthcare reforms.

Social Democrat co-leader Róisín Shortall claimed the Government was "not interested" in progressing with the reforms set out in the Sláintecare 10-year plan and "all it does is pay lip service to it".

Citing the resignations of two key Slánaitecare figures, Laura Magahy and Tom Keane, and the former chair of the South-Southwest Hospital Group, Professor Geraldine McCarthy, she said the Government was "downplaying the seriousness of the crisis that now exists with Sláintecare".

She said: "We will never see reform of the health service unless the political will is there to drive it in order to take on the vested interests, wherever they come from, and to ensure that the people of this country have access to healthcare based on need and not ability to pay.

"We know where that resistance is emanating from: the HSE and the Department of Health," Ms Shortall told the Dáil.

Responding, Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath said the Government remains "absolutely committed" to the fundamental reforms outlined in Sláintecare.

Covid 'turned our health service upside down'

However, he hit back at Ms Shortall, claiming she hadn't mentioned the "elephant in the room", which is that the country has had 18 months of living with Covid. He said this had "turned our health service upside down".

"Our frontline healthcare staff have been trying to get by, protect lives and save people. That is what they have been focused on. Despite all that, we have brought about significant and transformative change in our health system during that time by way of the investment made in the public health service," he said.

Independent TD Catherine Connolly said the minister had once again minimised the scale of the problem in the healthcare service by focusing on Covid.

"The resignations were shocking enough, but even more so was the manner in which the Government has dealt with them," Ms Connolly said.

I hope I never hear a minister stand up here again and use the deaths of people from Covid as an explanation for why there was no progress on the implementation of a plan that was necessary."

Mr McGrath said the Government was increasing capacity in the system which "lays a very solid foundation" for the reforms set out in Sláintecare.

"The lack of capacity has been the single biggest weakness in the system in recent decades and it had to be fixed first. We are now well on the way to fixing that and we will make further progress on it across 2022."