Health service crisis - Tough times ahead for Harney

Over the next two months Tánaiste Mary Harney could be forgiven for having second thoughts about her enthusiasm in seeking, and being given, the health portfolio in last autumn’s Cabinet reshuffle.

She faces the very real possibility of industrial action on a number of fronts during February and March from nurses and consultants.

More importantly, several thousand patients face the prospect of treatments being delayed or cancelled if longstanding problems remain unresolved.

But while she is Health Minister for a few brief months, she has been aware of the problems afflicting the service over a very considerable time as a member of the Cabinet.

Yesterday, the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) attended a meeting of the A&E Forum, chaired by the Labour Relations Commission, and discussed problems which have been discussed ad nauseam.

The Executive Council of the INO has a meeting scheduled for next month at which it will consider giving sanction to their A&E Section to stage a lunchtime protest on February 22 outside units where severe overcrowding continues to occur.

No doubt, Ms Harney will recall that almost three years ago, members of the INO held a nationwide protest in relation to A&E overcrowding.

They still feel compelled to protest over the same problem, which sees unfortunate patients accommodated on trolleys, a problem which has become more accentuated in the intervening time.

But that is not their only worry. There are a range of issues which urgently need to be resolved in the health service, which is now costing the country €11 billion for a very poor return.

Those issues include implementation of key elements in the Health Strategy, such as the location of thousands of hospital beds, both acute and non-acute, the establishment of Primary Care Centres and the cap on recruitment, to mention but a few.

If the ceiling on recruiting nursing staff and a plethora of support staff is not removed, it will have a detrimental effect on improving fundamental defects that have existed for too long.

Those are all issues which the INO want to discuss at an emergency meeting with Ms Harney, as well as her own 10-point plan she proposed to tackle the A&E crisis.

The month after the likelihood of confrontation with the nurses, she faces possible industrial action by the country’s hospital consultants over the insurance row, which has also been simmering for some time.

While the Irish Medical Organisation has overwhelmingly voted for the action, their colleagues in the Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association will more than likely follow suit in their ballot which will be held over the next few weeks.

Ms Harney held a meeting yesterday with David Hanly, author of the controversial report on the future of the health service, and he will advise her in a consultative role.