Carol Nolan demands action on health services, funding and hospital
Carol Nolan spoke in the Dáil on 30 June 2020 about health service funding, waiting lists and regional hospital uncertainty. She criticised current allocations to the Department of Health and the HSE and pressed for resources to be redirected to frontline services including disability, mental health, home help and therapy for children.
Main concerns
She warned that gross-voted spending on healthcare has risen substantially since 2015 yet many services are still failing to deliver, and questioned value for money in the management of the Department of Health and the HSE. She urged the minister to ensure funding is directed where it is most needed.
Services under strain
She highlighted long waits and inadequate provision in disability services, mental health, home help and home help packages, and in speech and language and occupational therapy for children with special needs - saying these delays harm wellbeing and educational attainment. She noted the important role of voluntary organisations such as Men's Sheds, Jigsaw and GA clubs in filling gaps.
Lee Shoffley and Midlands Regional Hospital Bortleish
She recounted meetings with Lee Shoffley Families for Autism and pledged to continue raising the constituency's backlog of cases. She asked whether therapists could be redeployed from areas without backlogs and called for ongoing recruitment. She also requested consideration of an independent external facilitator to resolve the long-standing uncertainty at Midlands Regional Hospital Bortleish, which she said is inhibiting service development and specialist recruitment.
Funding analysis and mental health budgets
Referencing the PBO analysis, she said mental health receives a relatively small share of additional funding - noting a 46.5 million fall in capital budgets that offsets a 51.3 million rise in current spending. She warned that rolling out mental health strategies is pointless without sustained budgetary support.
Religious services and fair restrictions
She appealed for a common-sense approach to attendance at masses and other church services, describing current restrictions as unfair and urging that individual parishes be allowed to make decisions for themselves. She urged the minister to engage urgently with identified contacts to resolve outstanding issues.
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Minister, I wish to begin by wishing you well in your role and every success. It's a very challenging portfolio I'm sure, but no doubt you'll be very successful and effective and I look forward to engaging with you in a constructive manner and hopefully finding some solutions for some of our ongoing problems. So I wish you well there. I will be brief in this. The estimates we are being presented with here indicate staggering levels of funding that is going into the Department of Health and the management of the HSE and this is of huge concern to many people including myself. I'm just wondering can this be looked at because I think we need to make sure that we're taking responsibility and ensuring that the funding is directed adequately where it needs to be. For instance, areas like disability services, I'm hearing all of the time that they're left short and that the services are inadequate. Areas such as mental health which has been mentioned here a number of times already, home care help and packages. Elderly people are being failed and they are being left to languish on long waiting lists for home help and home help packages. And then in relation to speech and language therapy and occupational therapy with children with special needs waiting unacceptable periods of time and that affects their wellbeing and indeed their educational attainments. I know I attended a meeting of an organisation called Lee Shoffley Families for Autism before the election and I gave a pledge to those people there that I would continue to raise this issue on the floor of the Dáil as a TD for Lee Shoffley. Many parents, it's distressing to hear what they have to go through and indeed the fight that they have with the system in terms of getting basic services for their children. And I just feel Minister that maybe if a different approach was adopted, we have a serious ongoing problem in Lee Shoffley. But maybe if areas or regions where there isn't a problem, if the therapists could be brought from those regions into the regions where the backlog is and indeed ongoing recruitment of therapists just to make sure that we are ready for when there's an urgent need. And at this time, I can assure you there's a very long waiting list in Lee Shoffley that badly needs to be tackled. And I've no doubt that you will try to do that. Since its post-crisis low in 2015, gross-voted spending on healthcare has risen by almost 5 billion. And that's where the concern lies with many people, that we're just not seeing value for money, we're just not seeing the services. And I believe that, you know, a change in terms of approach is needed to ensure that we are seeing value for money and indeed adequate services in all of those areas I just mentioned. Will there be room in today's estimates for the appointment of an independent external facilitator in terms of Midlands Regional Hospital Bortleish? I know that this hospital has been left in limbo for so long now and it has been raised on the floor many, many times. I know I've raised it since I became a TD for Lee Shoffley. And, you know, the hospital is, because of the uncertainty, they're unable to develop and expand other services to the extent that they would like to. And also recruitment of specialist staff is posing very difficult for them. So, Minister, I'd just like to appeal to you on that, that if you could bring a final resolution to that ongoing issue, I'd be very grateful. And, as I say, the future of the facility has been in doubt for too long. With respect to the estimates themselves, we know primary care and mental health services have been receiving comparably smaller shares of additional funding. However, mental health services receives a very small share in overall terms. As I understand it from the PBO analysis, this is the result of a 46.5 million fall in capital budgets, which offsets current spending that is expected to rise by 51.3 million. I hope that this increased budget can be maintained. There is simply no point in rolling out mental health strategies if the funding is not there to make the ambitions a reality. Because I just feel people have been let down for so long now. And that the gap in our services in terms of mental health has been filled by many voluntary organisations who've done fantastic work. We have Men's Sheds, we have Jigsaw, we have many GA clubs now who are embracing this issue and helping everybody. But we need more. Talk to Hilly Rayon. Very, very urgently. And I will conclude by stating that, in regard to the attendance at masses and other church services, I would just appeal to you to make sure that a common sense approach is exercised. I have been contacted so often about this issue over the last few weeks. And I have to agree, it is unfair. Unfair restrictions are imposed that we don't see in any other sector. And I'd just like you, Minister, to make sure that there's a common sense approach and that parishes are allowed to make the decisions for themselves. Gurmang. Gurmang. Gurmang. Go and talk to... Gurmang. Thank you.
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