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Minister for Health praises healthcare staff
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly praises healthcare staff for their ‘extraordinary dedication’
It is a privilege to be able to speak to you in this Christmas edition of Health Matters. Since my appointment as Minister for Health in July 2020, I have had the honour of seeing first-hand the extraordinary dedication, commitment and expertise of all of you, Ireland’s healthcare workers.
When our professional lives are most difficult, we rely heavily on our friends and family for support, and yet, in the last 20 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, you haven’t been able to meet friends, you haven’t been able to go out for dinners or even hug some of your own family members.
While coping with this upheaval in your personal lives, you’ve been front and centre in Ireland’s response to COVID-19. You’ve worked long hours, in difficult circumstances to do what’s necessary to keep people safe.
You’ve dealt with incredibly stressful situations and you’ve done it with professionalism, and you’ve done it with pragmatism. You’ve always put the most vulnerable first, even if it meant personal suffering for you. You’ve done all this while also coping with your own personal responsibilities and trying to keep yourselves and your loved ones healthy and happy.
Some of you are grieving after losing loved ones and colleagues to COVID-19, and I would like to take this opportunity to offer my sincere sympathies. Many of you are worried about those who are close to you that are vulnerable to COVID-19, and some of you are worried about your own health. To all of you for everything you’ve done, I want to say a heartfelt thank you.
In the last few months, it has been a pleasure to be able to meet with many of you in different locations, getting a front row view of the innovation, excellence and kindness that is the backbone of our health care system day in and day out. I have visited hospices, maternity units, trauma centres, community care settings and many more.
On these visits, it is clear that the key principles of Sláintecare are being embraced and delivered - I see a healthcare service
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly during a recent visit to the Midwifery-Led Unit at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
which is providing timely and accessible care to everyone in our community.
In September on a visit to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, I saw their impressive Midwifery-led maternity unit and was fortunate to meet a number of their highly skilled Advance Nursing Practitioners. It was inspiring to hear about how their advanced training is assisting in the treatment of people in their own homes, and also leading to more efficient diagnoses and shorter waiting times.
In Roscommon, I officially opened the Roscommon Palliative Care Support Unit and walked through the fantastic services in Roscommon University Hospital. It was wonderful to meet so many teams delivering high quality care including the impressive Endoscopy Unit team and Urology team. The innovation at work in Roscommon and the commitment to patient care is brilliant to see.
In Galway I was pleased to see that strides are being taken in terms of improvements in service and waiting times at UHG. While there I visited the recently operational Ambulatory Gynae clinic at the hospital which provides timely healthcare for women in the region. It was encouraging to learn of a new advancement in healthcare that provides heart failure diagnostics and care in the community, meaning patients can avoid a trip to Galway University Hospital. This has meant a reduction in waiting times from six months to six weeks.
In Dublin’s Mater hospital I got to see some of the robotics at work in the hospital’s theatres and meet the fantastic multidisciplinary oncology team. The Mater Hospital has been designated as the National Trauma Centre for Ireland and I look forward to continuing to support the teams there to implement this.
My visit to Cavan gave me a real sense of the work done by compassionate and caring disabilities teams all over our country, providing top quality holistic care. I also had a chance to visit the vaccination centre there, where the public health team have worked tirelessly to ensure information is accessible to all members of the community by making translators available and providing for special transport to the centre. I’m truly impressed by the work of our vaccination teams across Ireland - we cannot thank them enough.
Women’s healthcare is a top health priority for me and this Government. Through the continued implementation of the National Maternity Strategy, the Ambulatory Gynaecology Model of Care, and the establishment of specialist clinics in women’s health, we are seeing significant and tangible improvements that enhance the safety and experience of our services for women, babies and families.
This year in Budget ’22 I secured €31 million to fully fund the Women’s Health Action programme. I cannot overstate how important it is for us to take action on what women have told us about their experiences in healthcare. In doing so, we enable you, our healthcare workers to provide the best healthcare for women. These improvements will also impact your own health and wellbeing, because so many of our valued healthcare workers are women. 2022 will see contraception freely available to women aged 17-25 and increased investment in a new approach to menopause care, to name just two things. This is only the beginning – this is the revolution in women’s health that has been long overdue.
I am committed to cutting waiting lists and have established a dedicated taskforce between the HSE and the Department of Health. I know that as front-line health care workers, the delay in delivering care is as much a source a frustration to you as it is to me and the many patients who are waiting for the care that they need. We are making incremental improvements across our service through investing in technology, staff, and infrastructure, and our aim is to continue to do this and to continue to build our world-class health service for the nation.
As we move through this winter period, it is important that we all take the steps available to us to continue to protect ourselves from COVID-19. This includes receiving a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine once it is available to you. We know if you work in healthcare you are 10 times more likely to get the flu so please do ensure you receive your winter flu vaccine
It is a great privilege to be Minister for Health and to represent you, our front-line healthcare workers, who’ve worked tirelessly on behalf of the people of Ireland throughout this pandemic.
I hope that you all manage to take a break in the coming weeks. It’s important that we all get a chance to unwind, to reflect and to enjoy time with our friends and family. I wish you and yours a safe and happy Christmas and look forward to better times in 2022.
