Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly will brief Cabinet colleagues on the winter plan for the health service today, amid rising fears about a “twindemic” of Covid-19 and the flu in the coming months.
Mr Donnelly will brief his colleagues about measures to speed up recruitment of staff and create more capacity in community care to ease the pressure on emergency departments this morning with the full details of the plan to be revealed when the HSE publishes the document in the afternoon.
Mr Donnelly will tell colleagues that the total spend on the winter plan will be €168 million, of which almost €45 million will be spent this year. However, it is understood that the bulk of this is money which has already been allocated in existing budgets.
The plan will include “site-specific” plans which relate to individual hospitals, following consultations with local staff.
Among the other measures outlined is the recruitment of hundreds of additional staff, especially in emergency departments where Mr Donnelly has sought an additional 51 emergency consultants and other ED staff.
The plan also provides for improved access to diagnostics, including providing services such as x-rays, scans and MRIs in the evenings and at weekends as well as additional supports for elderly people to support them in their homes, more community intervention teams, expansion of minor injury units to reduce the need for attendance in hospitals and more ambulance services.
However, there was some scepticism among health service sources, with one pointing out that many of the measures in the plan were already part of the health service’s plans. In addition, sources said that simply directing that more doctors and nurses be employed did not mean it would happen, give the current acute difficulties in recruiting medical personnel.
Mr Donnelly is also likely to bring the first advice from his new public health advisers, including new Chief Medical Officer Prof Breda Smyth, to Cabinet. It is expected to warn of an increased threat from Covid-19 as winter approaches and suggest that those who are vulnerable should wear face masks in settings there they feel under threat.
