Healthcare neglect - Funds vital for life-saving equipment

Our healthcare is being endangered by a lack of funding for such fundamentals as keeping hospitals clean so that they are not in breach of health and safety regulations. They are working with dangerously old X-ray equipment and sterilisation machines.

In one case in St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin, an essential piece of heart-treatment equipment has failed 28 times this year, but the money has still not been provided to replace it. Must we wait until there is a tragedy before something is done? Essential maintenance and vital replacements are not being undertaken for lack of money. A major finding of a value for money audit done some years ago highlighted the absence of replacement budgets that would give hospitals the freedom to replace vital machines. This report has yet to be implemented.

It is an utter waste to commission such reports, often at great expense, and then ignore the findings. If a minor piece of equipment breaks down, it can mean that a whole operating theatre is put out of commission, along with the services of the attendant consultants and staff.