It is not sustainable in the long term to continue to increase the health budget in line with demand every year, the top official in the Department of Health is expected to tell an Oireachtas committee on Wednesday.
Robert Watt is likely to argue reforms to how the health service works will be key to meeting demand in a population that is both growing and ageing.
Separately, HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster is expected to tell the same meeting of the Oireachtas joint committee on health that “demand for services is only going in one direction and in many cases at a faster rate than had been predicted before the pandemic”.
It is understood he will say that there is not only growth in the number of people seeking health services “but also in the range of conditions and the ever-growing options for responding, be that in diagnostics, procedures or therapeutics”.
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Mr Gloster is also expected to back further work practice changes and increased productivity.
It is understood he will tell the committee that it will be “the combined efforts of more resources and productivity that will enable us to respond to demand, whereas more resource on its own, or the corresponding waiting times pending that additional resource, are unsustainable”.
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The health service will receive more than €21 billion in funding from the exchequer this year.
A report in July by the Department of Public Expenditure said Government spending on the healthcare system grew by €10.3 billion, or 77 per cent, between 2015 and 2022.
“The growth of Government funding of the healthcare sector outpaced the growth in overall Government expenditure between 2015 and 2022. The growth of Government funding of healthcare also outpaced the growth in GNI [gross national income]”, the report stated.
Mr Watt is expected to maintain that the driving objective of health service management is to increase the volume of activity in the public system and to treat more people in the community through improved integrated care.
It is understood he will argue that “the more productive we are, the more patients we treat, the less time they must wait and the better health outcomes we can achieve”.
Mr Watt is expected to argue that the increased funding, the provision of more than 1,100 additional beds and a rise of nearly 40 per cent in staffing levels since 2016 have led to not just better care but also more care.
The Department of Health secretary general is also likely to point to demographic challenges in the years ahead with the population over the age of 65 expected to increase to a projected 1.87 million within the next 30 years.
Mr Gloster is expected to argue that increased funding and efficiency has already had an impact on services – with waiting times for outpatient department appointments falling and the numbers on trolleys reducing by 20 per cent so far this year.
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