Sinn Féin's €1.1 billion alternative Budget will bring change says Deputy Martin Browne TD
"Funding Fairer Healthcare" would make a real difference in the lives of people across Tipperary by transforming our healthcare system
Sinn Féin have launched a €1.1 billion Alternative Budget for Health 2023 ‘Funding Fairer Healthcare.’
It outlines how the healthcare system can be transformed through fair funding and investment, to ensure that people across Ireland can access high quality, timely care.
The proposals include a major expansion in healthcare degree places by 1,500 places for an increase of 24%, on average, across all courses, and additional investment in advanced training across medicine, nursing, and psychology.
Sinn Féin TD for Tipperary, Martin Browne, said the package would transform access to healthcare in Tipperary:
“Hospital waiting lists and emergency department wait times are spiralling out of control, GPs are becoming more difficult to access, and inequality in healthcare continues to deepen as the cost-of-living crisis impacts on workers and families. People here in Tipperary see these pressures everyday and they know that the system must change urgently.
“Sinn Féin is proposing €1.1 billion in new measures for Health in 2023, comprised of €657.7 million in current expenditure measures and an additional €461.6 million in capital or one-off spending.
“Sinn Féin would reduce the Drugs Payment Scheme threshold by 10% to €70 a month, abolish prescription charges for medical card holders, abolish hospital inpatient charges over two years, and reduce and cap car parking charges, particularly for frequent attendees.
“Our proposals mark a significant commitment to overhauling the approach to workforce planning in healthcare, as the Government parties’ hands-off approach has failed to date to train, recruit, and retain enough healthcare workers.
“We propose funding to open 500 additional acute inpatient beds by the end of 2023, 40 inpatient specialist rehabilitation beds, 37 additional critical care beds in 2023, and 250 community beds as well as 40 mental health inpatient places.
“We would provide additional capital funding for expanding surgical theatre capacity and public diagnostic capacity, equivalent to a 10% expansion in theatre capacity and 150,000 diagnostic scans.
“Sinn Féin would also prioritise new arrangements with primary care and hospital doctors, to resolve contract disputes, expand supporting staff arrangements, remove private healthcare from public hospitals, and expanding free GP care.
“We would double the staffing subsidy to GPs over 3 years to boost capacity around medical staff and expand GP training places by 20%. We would also expand eligibility for GP Visit Cards to 300,000 people and families.
“We would invest €153 million in implementing the Disability Capacity Review and fund targeted recruitment and retention measures for Children’s Disability Network Teams.
“Our proposals also include an €81 million investment in mental health services; €99 million for targeted improvement strategies across cancer, cardiovascular health, and healthcare for women.
“Sinn Féin’s priority in health is to deliver a universal Irish National Health Service which ends the two-tier health system and removes cost barriers to healthcare.
“This proposed budget would kickstart a 10-year strategy to transform the health service and deliver timely health and social care on the basis of need, not ability to pay.
“This package would make a real difference in the lives of people across Tipperary by transforming our healthcare system which currently isn’t working. It’s time for change. Sinn Féin in government would transform access to health services for people in Tipperary.”