The Government's final plans to overhaul the health service will be announced within the next six weeks, following the publication of three major reports on funding levels, staff numbers and reform of the health boards, writes Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent.
Faced with hundreds of hospital bed closures in Dublin, the Cabinet yesterday spent most of its meeting listening to a briefing on the matter from the Minister for Health, Mr Martin.
The hopes expressed by some in Government last week that the Departments of Health and Finance would yesterday agree a list of specific reforms were not realised, although there is no evidence that new disagreements have emerged.
"This was another part of the process. The reports will be published in full, and then we will show where we are going," a Government source told The Irish Times last evening.
Talks between the Minister for Health and the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, will continue in the weeks ahead, although the two men are getting close to agreeing a joint plan.
The Ministers and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, will publish the first of the reports, drafted by a committee led by Prof Niamh Brennan, within weeks.
The second document, compiled by Prospectus Strategy Consultants, which recommends sharp cuts in the numbers of health boards, will most likely be published next, the Government spokeswoman said. However, the third and final paper, the Hanly report on staffing levels in the health service, may not be presented to the Department of Health for another six weeks.
"There is no chance that this will be left over until after the summer. The reports and what we intend to do with them will be made clear before that happens," she told The Irish Times last night.
The publication of three weighty documents may help to disguise some remaining disagreements between Health and Finance on the need to get better value for money throughout the service.
In reply to the Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, the Taoiseach supported Mr Martin, saying: "The Minister for Health and Children is doing his best and, of course, he has my confidence in that regard." Speaking in the Dáil, the Taoiseach insisted that more people were being cared for by the health service than ever before. "I do not think I will ever reach the day where nobody is on a waiting list," he declared.
Under Opposition attack, the Minister for Health rejected charges that the proposed closure of 250 beds in Dublin's teaching hospitals showed that the system was close to collapse.
"The word 'crisis' has been used. Language is cheap. I have heard the word 'crisis' used to describe the health service for the past five or six years," he told Ms Liz McManus (Labour).
Under a 1996 law, the teaching hospitals are required to stay within their budgets.
If they do not, the overrun is deducted from the next year's funding from the Department of Health. However, the Minister's analysis of the hospitals budget was rejected by Ms Olivia Mitchell (Fine Gael), who said the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) would be more than €200 million in the red by the end of the year.
Last year the ERHA initially received €2.7 billion from Health, although its final budget rose to €2.84 billion.
Its 2003 allocation has been increased to €2.927 billion. However, the ERHA, she said, should have €3.13 billion to cover 10 per cent medical inflation.
The extra beds provided in 2002-3 in Dublin had now been completely wiped out by cutbacks, said Ms Mitchell, while the shortage of nursing-home beds meant 350 more beds were not available for acute patients.