Our Hospitals and Primary Care
Our Vision for Healthcare In Ireland:
A Great Place to Work, A Great Place to Receive Care
01
Overcrowding, Prolonged A&E Waiting Times, Delayed Discharges
- Increase bed capacity and aim for a four-hour target wait for Emergency Departments.
- Ensure there is an emergency medicine consultant present in emergency departments 24-hours.
- Improve access to diagnostics for Emergency Departments and GPs with a new minor capital grant fund of €50m.
- Remove recruitment embargo, target staffing allocations of additional consultants and nurses to critical areas in Emergency Departments.
- Commence the 2,600 additional hospital beds recommended under the Capacity Review.
- Significantly increase home care support hours to alleviate delayed discharges.
- Examine how the district hospital network can be utilised more to provide step down facilities.
02
Supporting General Practice
- Expand free GP care on the basis of means in line with Sláintecare’s goals and in alignment with an expansion in capacity.
- Implement the recently agreed changes to the GP contract and include provisions for its continuous assessment and improvement.
- Negotiate a new contract to underpin General Practice for the next 30 years to include issues such as Women’s Health Programmes, Out of Hours Services and Services to patients in Nursing Homes.
- Increase GP training places to 274.
- Protect rural GP practices by increasing the allowance to €30,000.
03
Mental Health Supports
The need for strong mental health supports is ever-growing, especially among younger people. Many parents have great concerns about the wellbeing of their children especially in a world of social media interaction. We will work to develop 21st-century skills such as teamwork, empathy, and resilience in school and youth settings.
By providing a strong suite of measures of early intervention programmes designed to prevent mental ill-health developing in the first place we are committed to implementing a “Vision for change” and have allocated the €200m in additional spending required by that policy to finance the specific measures included in this.
04
Reduce waiting lists and waiting times
- Increase the National Treatment Purchase Fund to €200 million.
- Put the emphasis on reducing waiting times.
- Ensure that anyone waiting more than six months for a procedure will be able to apply to the National Treatment Purchase Fund.
05
Home Help Packages
- Provide an additional five million hours of home care support.
- Implement a statutory homecare scheme.
- Deliver a ‘Carers Guarantee’ proposal that will provide a core basket of services to carers across the country regardless of where they live.
06
Support Residential Care and the Fair Deal
- Increase Fair Deal funding by €225m.
- Develop a national strategy for long-term residential care of our older people that includes current and future plans for the funding and financing of this care.
- Ensure that no Fair Deal resident is charged for services they do not use.
- Implement the proposed Fair Deal changes for farming families.
- Introduce an independent appeal process for nursing home providers under the Nursing Home Support Scheme.
07
Respite Hours
Urgent action is taken to better support carers and address years of underspending on homecare, carers payments and respite care.
An accruing problem that will not go away.
06
Recruit More Nurses
- Recruit 4,000 additional nursing staff over the next five years.
- Within this number we will ensure that GP’s practice nurse numbers are increased by 300 and public health nurses by 350.
- Implement the safe staffing framework in all hospitals.
- Target increased numbers to decrease the overreliance on agency staff.
Recruit Extra Consultants
- Negotiate a new contract with consultants.
- End pay inequality for post 2012 entrants.
- Recruit at least 800 extra consultants over five years.
East Galway
Towns & Villlages
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