Committee on Future of Mental Health Care launches calls for greater transparency from the HSE

Committee Chairperson, Joan Freeman, said today, “This report represents the preliminary findings of the Committee in the three key areas identified by it, namely, primary care, recruitment and funding. Each of these pieces depends on each other and the Committee has realised in the course of its deliberations that primary care, which is vital to the efficient delivery of services, is hampered by problems with recruitment, which is in turn affected by funding problems. While we welcome the fact that the HSE came before the Committee on numerous occasions to answer our questions and provided us with high level information on funding, we remain dissatisfied with the level of specifics we received from them on the subject. The Committee felt that the HSE did not drill down enough into the spending figures to show us exactly where money is being spent on the front line and this frustrated Committee Members.” Senator Freeman went on to say that smoke screens and vagueness are used by the HSE in order to make it more difficult to identify where funding is being spent.

“Throughout our deliberations, we heard time and time again that recruitment and retention of staff are huge issues in the Irish health service, because the HSE use the excuse that there are better working conditions available for health professionals abroad. However, further investigation revealed a poor process of recruitment that would impede recruiting professionals because of the ineffectiveness and inefficacy of the recruitment procedure. If we are to retain the staff that are so desperately needed in the mental health service, the HSE need to listen to the advice of experts including Staff that work at the front line as to how to recruit at local level and how to improve working conditions that will encourage people to remain in their employment. This report makes a number of practical recommendations to aid in the recruitment and retention of staff, such as providing flexible work patterns and subsidised accommodation for health sector staff.”

“During our hearings, we heard that GPs are often the first port of call for many people experiencing mental health difficulties. Our report highlights the fact that the current GP contract for the Medical Card System is now almost 40 years old. There is no provision in the contract for GPs to provide on-going care for long term conditions, including mental health conditions, many of which require and benefit from on-going care. The Committee also recognises the special consideration that should be given to people from minority groups, which can be affected by unique issues. Overall, this report shines a light on the glaring inadequacies of the Irish mental health service, and the urgent need for action to be taken, particularly in the areas of primary care, recruitment and funding.”

Read the report here