You can use your existing Medical Independent, MediLearning or PharmacistCPD account to log in.
Established in 2010, along with its sister publication The Medical Independent, our stated aim is to investigate and analyse the major issues affecting healthcare and the medical profession in Ireland. The Medical Independent has won a number of awards for its investigative journalism, and its stories are frequently picked up by national digital, broadcast and print media. The Medical Independent is published by GreenCross Publishing.
Address: Top Floor, 111 Rathmines Road Lr, Dublin 6
Tel: 353 (01) 441 0024
GreenCross Publishing is owned by Graham Cooke.
Sign up now for ease of access to The Medical Independent, Ireland’s most frequently published medical newspaper, delivering award-winning news and investigative reporting.
You are reading 1 of 2 free-access articles allowed for 30 days
32nd IHCA AGM, Saturday 10 October 2020, Virtual Annual General Meeting and Conference
The pandemic has backed the Irish health service into a corner, the IHCA President Prof Alan Irvine told his Association’s annual conference. He said that current bed capacity levels are “dangerous…we need to run the capacity at around 85 per cent”.
Prof Irvine added that the long waiting lists are “reckless”
“There is no doubt that people will suffer for being too long on waiting lists for conditions that are time sensitive… and there are about 500 consultant posts vacant.
“That is unsustainable, you can’t run a service [that way].”
While calling for serious investment in beds and expansion in capacity, Prof Irvine also looked for reform in how bed capacity is presented.
“We know it is not just the number of beds, we would like to see transparency around the number of beds,” he said.
There is no doubt that people will suffer for being too long on waiting lists for conditions that are time sensitive
“Let’s have a dashboard of success rather than a trolley guard dashboard of failure, to create some sense of positivity and forward momentum in our system.
“What I would love to see is weekly or monthly updates saying ‘we added this number of ICU beds’, or ‘this number of acute care beds’, or ‘we reduced the waiting list by this much’.
“Having a sense of really moving forward – too much of the dialogue is dominated by negativity; we really need to create positivity by delivering transparency.”
Prof Irvine pointed to recently created capacity through modular units, and in the Citywest facility in Dublin, as pointers of what positive measures could be undertaken. He also said there needed to be more regional and local decision-making in the health service.
“We really want to see devolved decision making where local people are given a framework that can adapt and find local solutions in their communities.”
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly told the conference that bed capacity needed to be built up “while at the same time modernising the care pathways”.
“We have got to support people in their home, treat people in the community if we can, and then we need a world class, properly resourced hospital system for those who need it.”
He added it was “critical now that our health system is stabilised”.
“The coming months may well be the most challenging in living memory for our healthcare system.”
Some members of the Medical Council’s ethics committee considered that doctors’ ethical guidance should be strengthened...
Almost half of GP training staff are to retire this year following the transfer of responsibility...
Dr Vincent Maher, Consultant Cardiologist, Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, told delegates that there could be up to...
An update to the Covid-19 vaccination programme as a result of the threat posed by the...
There is “no central collation” of data on Covid-19 staff derogations during the pandemic in either...
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.