The Opposition rounded on Minister for Health Leo Varadkar after he reportedly said more beds and resources could lead to less productivity in some hospitals.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams described the stance as “stupid” when his party outlined its plans to deliver universal health care at an event in Dublin.

“It’s a nonsense. It’s putting the blame on the staff and it’s actually arguing in a daft way for hospital overcrowding,” Mr Adams said.

Fianna Fáil health spokesperson Billy Kelleher described Mr Varadkar’s position as “astonishing and offensive”.

“It is clear that the Minister thinks that overcrowding provides the optimum working environment for a hospital,” Mr Kelleher said.

“Furthermore, what sort of impact will this have on staff morale if the Minister for Health thinks they are a shower of shirkers who will only get the finger out if they are working in a pressure cooker environment?”

Crowded hospitals

In an interview with the

Sunday Independent

, Mr Varadkar was quoted as saying: “What can happen in some hospitals is sometimes, when they have more beds and more resources, that’s what kind of slows it down.

“When a hospital is very crowded, there will be a real push to make sure people get their X-rays, get their tests and, you know, ‘lets get them out in four days’.

“When a hospital isn’t under as much pressure, you start to see things slowing down and it might take five, six, seven days to get the person discharged and that’s [the] length of stay, so it’s all these different factors come into play all the time.”

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin’s health spokesman, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, said his was the only party with “a costed, credible plan for health”.

He said Sinn Féin would increase investment in the health system and use €3.3 billion “of the money available” to end the two-tier public/private system and deliver a new universal public health system.

Sinn Féin has advocated recruiting 6,600 additional frontline health workers and the creation of 3,800 additional nursing home places.

“We propose to incrementally reduce and ultimately eliminate health user charges, from GP fees to charges for prescription drugs, all in a strategic way and as resources allow.” Mr Ó Caoláin said Sinn Féin would abolish prescription charges and roll out free GP care for all.

Medical cards

“This will begin with the extension of automatic medical cards to every child with a serious illness or disability, secure medical cards for adults with disabilities and extending free GP care to the remainder of the population by approximately 230,000 additional people a year.”