Free prescription medicines, State GPs and expansion of medical cards: Sinn Féin unveils health plan

Party's health spokesperson David Cullinane said plan was to 'massively reduce the cost of healthcare' in move towards towards a 'single-tier universal healthcare system'

Sinn Féin spokesperson on health David Cullinane at the launch of the party's health plan. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/ RollingNews.ie

A Sinn Féin health plan which pledges free prescriptions, 250 State-employed GPs, and a full public health system by 2035 is designed to "breathe life" into Sláintecare, not overtake it, the party has said.

Launching the 120-page document on Tuesday, the party's health spokesperson David Cullinane said Sinn Féin had signed up to the cross-party Sláintecare plan, but the pace of delivery had not been what was needed. However, he said his party's €35bn planned overhaul of the health service was the death knell for the plan agreed in 2018.

Mr Cullinane said it was "for other parties to account for themselves" on the flagship health reforms, but denied the plan was designed to take from Sláintecare.

"This plan that we produced is to bring life back into the promises that were made when Sláintecare was put together. So the two tenets of Sláintecare were that we would deliver the right care, in the right place, at the right time for citizens, and that we would move towards a single-tier universal health care system.

"So what do we do in our plan? We massively reduce the cost of healthcare. We're abolishing prescription charges for everybody, free prescription medicines for all citizens, a very, very significant expansion of medical cards to move us further down the road, and very dramatically, I would say, towards a single-tier universal healthcare system.

So that's breeding life back into something that the Government simply have sucked the life out of.

The plan includes five commitments for the party in the first 100 days of a Sinn Féin government, which include legislating for free prescription medicine for all, beginning negotiations for a public GP contract, a revised bed plan for 5,000 additional hospital beds, tasking Hiqa with finding a second location for an emergency department for the Mid-West, and beginning work on a rural health strategy, which would be the first in the history of the State.

“We have five first 100 day commitments, which actually sets out the tone of what a Sinn Féin government would do from day one,” Mr Cullinane said.

“From the minute, if we got the chance to be in government, we will roll up our sleeves and we’re ready to deliver health and housing and childcare and all of these issues, and that’s what this plan is about.”

A key part of the Sinn Féin plan would see a public GP contract, which would see 250 GPs employed by the State. Mr Cullinane said some of those training to be GPs did not want to be "entrepreneurs" and did not want to hire staff.

Our plan will give young trainees a choice: if you want independent practice, we will support you, but if you want to work as a public GP, we will do that.

Sinn Féin said it would set a savings and efficiencies target of at least €1bn, equating to 4% of the current health budget. The party has pledged to recruit 40,000 healthcare workers over five years, and attract Irish workers home.

It has also pledged to give a job guarantee to health graduates, and mandate a 34% reduction in agency staffing and increase direct employment. 

The party said it would also deliver 5,000 hospital beds by 2031, including the replacement of 1,000 unsafe beds to “set the course” to eliminate the use of hospital trolleys and modernise the records systems across the health service.