Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly has welcomed an agreement with the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Paschal Donohoe on a two-year agreement on Health Expenditure for 2024 and 2025.
The Government has agreed to provide an additional €1.5 billion in funding for the health service this year, along with a further €1.2 billion for Existing Level of Service (ELS) for next year.
Minister Donnelly said, “I’m pleased to have been working with Minister Donohoe and reached agreement on funding our health service. I am very grateful to my cabinet colleagues for their support as we continue to expand and improve our services, reduce waiting times for those services and continue work on enhancing productivity across the health sector”.
“This Government has invested significantly in our health service, improving access, providing better quality services, and ensuring health services are affordable for patients. Since 2020 we have added over 28,000 (including 3,000 in disability) additional staff, including over 9,500 new nurses and midwifes, 4,250 health and social care professionals and 3,100 doctors and dentists. We have also added almost 1,200 more hospital beds.
“We have one of the highest life expectancies in the EU. Our survival rates for cancer, stroke, infant mortality, and heart attacks have hugely improved. Our outcomes clearly show that our health service is delivering quality care.
“Waiting lists have fallen, with the number of patients waiting longer than the agreed Sláintecare targets (10/12 weeks) falling by 27% since the pandemic peak– that’s 170,000 people.
“Our health service is experiencing much greater demand and treating many more patients. Significant progress is being made in tackling hospital overcrowding. Even though there has been a 10% increase in presentations to Emergency Departments, this year alone overcrowding has fallen by 14%.
“In the lifetime of this Government more patients are being treated – 3.4 million outpatient appointments last year, a further 1.8 million people treated in hospitals.
“We know that with an ageing and growing population there will continue to be significant pressure on our health service, and I welcome the agreement reached with Minister Donohoe that ensures significant funding for our health services this year and next.
“While I will continue to fight for increased investment in our health service, we must also continue to ensure that our investment and existing resources are maximised. This is to ensure we treat as many patients as possible and can expand services. I have introduced a strong focus on productivity and the need for stronger performance management and accountability. I have made it clear to the HSE that it needs to demonstrate greater progress here.”
