Multi-billion pound plan to address healthcare crisis

The Government today fires the first salvo of the forthcoming election campaign when it unveils a multi-billion pound plan to tackle the crisis in the health services.

The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, in the presence of the Taoiseach and the Tβnaiste, will launch the long-awaited and much-leaked Health Strategy in Dublin's Mansion House this morning.

The document, which proposes thousands of new hospital beds, major structural reform and radical measures to deal with hospital waiting lists, will set out an agenda for change in the health services for the next seven to 10 years.

But with the general election looming, it will also include emergency measures designed to make an immediate impact on the problems of the service. The Government is seen as vulnerable on health, which is widely seen as the main issue with the electorate.

The document is expected to propose that all public patients who have been on waiting lists for over three months will be transferred for treatment to private hospitals or abroad.

However, this proposal, which was made by the Progressive Democrats last September, is likely to take at least three years to implement fully.

Mr Martin will announce today the budget for the Government's health plans over the next decade. However, planned health spending in the crucial pre-election period remains the subject of further discussion with the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, before next month's Budget.

Mr McCreevy has repeatedly expressed scepticism about the value for money provided by additional spending on health.

After a six-month standoff, the two ministers finally reached agreement last Thursday, when it was agreed that future spending would be made conditional on the health of the economy.

Under the plan, up to 3,000 new hospital beds are to be provided over the next decade, with 650 coming on stream by the end of next year. Some 450 of these will be provided in the public system and 200 will be contracted from private hospitals.

Special teams comprised of doctors, nurses, social workers and other health professionals will be created in large towns to provide primary healthcare and keep patients out of hospitals as much as possible.

The Government may also propose that all new beds in public hospitals will be used exclusively for public patients.

At present, about 25 per cent of beds in public hospitals are designated for private patients.

Mr Martin will give a commitment to the recruitment of 10,000 nurses over the lifetime of the strategy. Between 1,500 and 1,700 nurses will be trained in over the next year.

Hospital consultants are to be asked to provide greater flexibility in their working hours, a measure that is likely to meet with considerable opposition unless provision is made for additional consultants' posts.

The document will propose the recruitment of more consultants, but the exact number will be the subject of further discussions within the health sector.

The document will also propose the setting up of a new independent hospital authority, less dominated by consultants than Comhairle na nOspidΘal. It is unclear whether the new agency will replace or co-exist with the Comhairle. Further proposals are likely to include a widening of availability to medical cards, extra daycare places and regular quality audits on hospitals by a new information and quality authority. The role and function of the health boards will be the subject of a review.

Today's high-profile launch will be followed in the next fortnight by the publication of documents on primary healthcare, increasing bed capacity, care for the elderly and the results of a value for money audit.

Health was allocated an additional £630 million, 14 per cent up on last year, in the Estimates announced earlier this month.