asked the Minister for Health the additional funds which are being provided for the health services in (a) the current financial year and (b) the next financial year; the particular services for which this money will be allocated; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Questions. - Additional Funds for Health Services.
11.
I will be bringing a Supplementary Estimate before the House this evening seeking Dáil approval to an amount of £32.9 million for the current year.
The Book of Estimates for 1990 which will be published this afternoon shows an increase of £109 million on the original provision for 1989. I will be deciding on the allocations to individual health agencies shortly.
We will have an opportunity to deal with the Supplementary Estimate tonight and the provision in the Book of Estimates which is probably of the order of a 9 per cent increase. While acknowledging that there are gaps in the service, does the Minister accept that those gaps amount to a crisis in some areas? Is he aware of the statement concerning the largest hospital in the country where yesterday a decision was made not to admit any non-emergency cases for 48 hours, that the consultant in that hospital remarked that there are simply not enough beds in Dublin to cater for non-emergency cases, that some of the patients being discharged are suffering from bowel diseases——
The Deputy is raising a particular matter, which is a separate question.
It is the question on the provision of finance for the hospital service.
The hospital to which the Deputy refers, received an allocation of £39 million this year, including what they will receive from the Supplementary Estimate. There are in excess of 2,000 staff working in the hospital. While I am aware of the statement which was made yesterday I do accept that there are insufficient acute beds in Dublin. An emergency such as took place yesterday can happen any time. I understand there were 90 emergency admissions in a 24 hour period as a result of all kinds of incidents and various illnesses. No service in the world can cater for that type of emergency.
Does the Minister accept that the financial provision still does not cater for critical areas? His Department or the health boards are responsible indirectly for the provision of speech therapy to special schools. Yet in those special schools where the children so badly need the assistance of speech therapists they are denied them and the number of hours available are limited because of the absence of finance from the health boards through his Department. These gaps are repeated in dental care and care for the aged in nursing homes. The provision being made for the remainder of this year has proved to be inadequate.
While I do not have specific figures for speech therapists, one of the difficulties is in recruiting these people. In relation to the subventions to the Eastern Health Board it might interest the House to know that rather than a reduction in the amount being spent on subventing elderly people in nursing homes the board are subventing 16,000 more bed days in 1989 than in 1988. The Eastern Health Board have increased their expenditure on subventions by over £250,000 in 1989 over 1988.
That is because long stay hospitals were closed.
Since July 30 patients have been approved for admission to private nursing homes.
Order. I want to come to deal with other questions. I will call Deputy Yates for a supplementary.
In relation to the Supplementary Estimate, would the Minister acknowledge that most of the extra £31 million is not to provide improved health care services or to fill the gaps, to which Deputy Rabbitte referred? Would he agree that it is to cover over-runs of overestimated expenditure, that none of the money will provide dental services, child care services, the needs of AIDS patients and so on; but that it is to cover the wrong calculation of the cost of running the health service in 1989 and that therefore it is false to represent it as the cash boost to the health services?
I do not accept that. I have already pointed out a number of areas in which there have been improvements and a reduction in the waiting list as a result of the £15 million provided by the Government. Regarding dental services, there is provision in the Supplementary Estimate for an orthodontic service to deal with 500 priority cases.
There are 700 cases in County Wexford alone. This is a drop in the ocean.
It is the first time in six years that any effort has been made to improve the dental service.
The Minister savaged the Estimate.
Order. This is becoming a wide-ranging affair, more appropriate to the debate on the health services later this evening.
Does the Minister accept that it is tantamount to misleading the House to present figures in the manner in which he has presented some of them? I raised a point concerning subventions from health boards for the care of the aged. To speak about £250,000 being an improvement on the previous year is to conceal the fact that so many long-stay hospitals have been closed and patients have been discharged who are now depending on these nursing homes where their care is subvented by the health boards.
We must have finality on this question.
I do not accept what Deputy Rabbitte is saying. There was a proposal by my predecessor that Baggot Street Hospital should be closed and sold off. I took responsibility for asking the Eastern Health Board to take over Baggot Street Hospital where not alone have they provided 35 beds for the elderly but also 35 beds for respite care, so that the carers might be looked after. If the Deputy wishes to put down a question, we will deal with it.