I am committed to tackling blockages in the health system and to building capacity as we move towards the goal of universal health care as envisaged by the Sláintecare programme. The Government has delivered record levels of investment over the past three years which has reduced costs for patients, improved services and speeded up access.
At community level, we have increased the number of people entitled to free GP care, reduced the threshold for the drug payment scheme and invested in the reform of primary care and community care services through the roll out of the Enhanced Community Care Programme. In the acute system, we have removed public inpatient hospital charges, delivered an additional 1,000 acute hospital beds and begun to tackle waiting lists and times through a series of Waiting List Action Plans. Additionally, there are over 23,000 more Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) staff working in our health service than there were at the beginning of 2020. This includes 6,808 nurses and midwives; 3,388 health and social care professionals; and 2,633 doctors and dentists.
I am aware that more needs to be done to meet the increasing demand for health care across community and acute services. I recently announced the completion of the extension of the GP Visit Card scheme which will see an additional 215,000 people become eligible for free GP care. 2024 will see continued implementation of the Enhanced Community Care Programme, with funding allocated to provide up to 240,000 community radiology diagnostic scans through the GP Access to Community Diagnostics programme. It is expected that the level of home support will be maintained in 2024 and the minimum proportion of new homecare hours ringfenced for people with dementia will increase to 18%. There will also be further investment in areas such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, where funding will allow additional recruitment to improve access to services, drive efficiencies, and reduce waiting lists.
Reducing the numbers on waiting lists and shortening waiting times in both the acute and community areas are critical priorities for the Government. With the funding from Budget 2024 (€407 million), we are taking the next steps in the multi-annual approach towards achieving the vision of a world-class public healthcare system in which everyone has timely and transparent access to high-quality scheduled care, where and when they need it, in line with Sláintecare reforms. The HSE will also build on the work of the 2023 Urgent and Emergency Care Operational Plan to deliver a suite of targeted reform measures and initiatives to ensure appropriate and timely provision of care in Emergency Departments. More detail on the measures to be implemented in 2024 will be set out in the HSE’s National Service Plan (NSP) which is under development. My Department will monitor the performance of the HSE in delivering the NSP through an established DoH-HSE performance engagement model. The model provides for structured engagement at various levels within both organisations to identify service delivery challenges and agree and implement improvement actions.
Finally, I readily acknowledge the importance of the health workforce in delivering quality health care services. In the past number of years, the HSE has been developing its ability to attract and retain essential talent, to meet the needs of our health service now and in the future. Actions have included increases in the number of permanent contracts offered, development of career pathways and competitive international relocation packages. While workforce growth in 2024 will be lower than recently, expansion will continue in a number of targeted areas and a range of key workforce initiatives will be progressed, including the further rollout of the Safe Nurse Staffing Framework and the expansion of student nurse and medical education places. Work will continue to deliver on the recommendations of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Health Care Assistants. A number of recommendations from this Group have already been incorporated into the new and improved HSE Home Support Tender, which provides for payment for travel time for home support providers and paying carers the National Living Wage at a minimum. Work will also continue on the roll-out of the public only consultant contract in 2024, and indeed 1,000 consultants have already signed the new contract. This will extend the hours that consultants are on duty and facilitate more rapid and appropriate decision making, reduced emergency admissions, better patient flow and ultimately improved patient outcomes. I am confident that developments such as these will improve the conditions for staff working in the health service across the board.
