Health Service Plan more misery on way says Crowe

Dublin South West Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe believes the HSE National Service Plan spells misery for health service users and staff in 2012. Crowe accused the Health Minister James Reilly of tinkering with a plan that is based on the savage Budget 2012 cuts

Deputy Crowe said:

“This HSE National Service Plan is continuing to implement  cuts to health spending in line with the savage cuts from the Government’s Budget. The plan spells misery for people who use our health services and the staff who have to deliver those services.

“The budget reduction of €750 million comes after the €1 billion reduction in 2011. Health Minister James Reilly’s claim that front-line services can be preserved through greater efficiency is contradicted by the Plan which states that ‘the bulk of the reductions that the HSE is required to deliver in 2012 will impact  directly on frontline services in hospitals like Tallaght.

“Last year the people of Dublin South West were told that St Brigid’s Nursing Home in Crooksling was to close in a decision that has caused significant disruption to the high dependency patients who are resident there. We are now facing the loss of nearly 600 beds in public nursing homes – a devastating blow.

Like the people who opposed the closure of St Brigid’s and the Abbeyleix Community Nursing Home I am certain that communities will increasingly resist these cuts that are resulting in the loss of beds and the threatened closures across this State.

“The Service Plan confirms the projected departure of 3,000 staff from the health services in 2012 and states that the Plan itself will have to be reviewed later in the year depending on the numbers going.

“Again the Plan contradicts the Minister’s repeated assurances that front-line care can be protected when it says that ‘efficiencies will not compensate for the loss of frontline healthcare delivery staff in such large numbers’.