The Minister for Health has confirmed that the Government is projecting the need for 50,000 fewer medical cards next year rather than a reduction of 125,000, and says there will be no reviews of the system such as occurred in 2014.
Commenting on an article in today's Irish Times, Leo Varadkar said the Government does not expect a reduction of the order of 125,000 medical cards to materialise based on this year's figures, and confirmed that Cabinet ministers had raised concerns over the possible public perception of a "secret plan" to drastically reduce the number of card holders.
"The story on the front page of The Irish Times was essentially true, there was a concern at Cabinet level, one that I shared, that that figure [OF 125,000]seems too big. People would have the concern that there was some secret plan afoot to actively reduce the number of medical cards. That is not the case," he told RTÉ radio.
He also confirmed that the larger figure of 125,000 was used in correspondence by the HSE sent to the Department of Health, and said the HSE's projected funding shortfall of € 100 million next year as reported in The Irish Times will "depend on how things pan out'.
“Within any plan there are financial risks. There is the possibility that savings won’t be achieved, that income that’s supposed to come in won’t come in, and that new costs will arise,” he said.
He further went on to state that the Government’s hugely unpopular attempts to reduce the medical card base in 2014 would not be repeated in next year’s HSE service plan.
The Minister sought to assure HSE staff that any increments owed to them as per the Lansdowne Road Agreement will be paid in full and that his department does not regard the area of pay increments as a source of potential savings.
The overall plan is predicting some € 15 billion expenditure on health services next year, and while Mr Varadkar said services will be “maintained or improved” in 2016 he admitted that ambitious waiting list targets set at the beginning of his tenure will not be met by the end of next year despite already being overdue.
Although there will be a reduction in the number of children waiting over 20 weeks for elective surgery in 2016, around two in five paediatric patients will still be waiting for longer than 20 weeks after the Government pledged to reduce the number to zero.
Around 95 per cent of adults who require operations will be waiting less than 15 months next year, but again the previously promised figure of zero will not be achieved.
“The approach that we’re taking is to set realistic targets, and in each case what we’re projecting next year is a reduction in waiting times, but a realistic one and one that’s achievable,” said Mr Varadkar.
The minister added that he hopes to have the new set of hospital groups which will replace the existing HSE structure established on a statutory basis by January 1st 2017, but said the process of replacing the HSE will be a slow one and that there will be no “big bang reform”.