Budget 2018 falls very far short of what is needed to implement the Sl\u00e1intecare health reform plan, Social Democrats co-leader R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall TD said today.<\/p>\n
Speaking immediately after the Budget was announced, Deputy Shortall said:<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first time in history, the government had in front of it a fully costed plan for health reform put forward earlier this year with agreement of all political parties. What was needed today was full government commitment to that Sl\u00e1intecare blueprint.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe health spending outlined in today\u2019s Budget falls very far short of what is needed to cut waiting lists for all public health services and to reduce the many charges for health services which are a barrier to people accessing care when they need it, in line with the Sl\u00e1intecare plan. The \u20ac120 million a year commitment for capital spending in particular is not enough to fund the building programme needed if we are to properly switch our delivery of health services to the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would require \u20ac500million worth of annual investment in building new health centres, ensuring additional hospital capacity, and implementing an e-health programme which, if properly resourced, would result in considerable long-term savings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deputy Shortall, who chaired the cross-party Oireachtas Committee which agreed the Sl\u00e1intcare plan, added:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is particularly disappointing that the Minister for Finance did not mention Sl\u00e1intecare in his Budget speech. Health Minister Simon Harris should now spell out the government\u2019s future commitment to Sl\u00e1intecare, even though this will have to be over a longer time scale given the failure to fully provide for the plan in this year\u2019s Budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n
10 October 2017<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Budget 2018 falls very far short of what is needed to implement the Sl\u00e1intecare health reform plan, Social Democrats co-leader R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall TD said today. Speaking immediately after the Budget was announced, Deputy Shortall said: \u201cFor the first time in history, the government had in front of it a fully costed plan for health reform […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[16,104,17],"class_list":["post-307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news","category-press-release","tag-roisin-shortall","tag-slaintecare","tag-social-democrats"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n