The Minister for Health assures that no patient will be refused hospital admission for budgetary reasons and outlines initiatives to alleviate pressure on emergency departments, aiming for a trouble-free winter.

AnsweredQoN 266Legislative Assembly
Asked
13 May 2004
Portfolio
Health

QuestionView source ↗

I have a supplementary question, which I intended to ask by way of interjection. Will the Minister issue instructions to all health service managers that no patient be refused admission to hospital for budgetary reasons? Mr J.A. McGINTY

AnswerView source ↗

Absolutely; I would not find it acceptable under any circumstances for budgetary considerations to be the criteria for admission to hospital. The combination of initiatives to which I just referred indicates a genuine desire to reflect, in the budgetary allocation for the service provision, what we are hearing from the doctors and nurses on the front line. We must make sure that we are reflecting what they think will help. I neglected to mention before that the soon-to-be-opened general practitioner clinics in association with emergency departments will also help to take pressure off the emergency departments, not at the acute end where people need hospital admission, but at the lesser end, where people are sitting for hour after hour in emergency departments waiting for treatment, whether it be for a sick child or themselves. All these things have come about as a result of very focused attention on what everyone recognises to be one of the greatest problems facing our public hospitals; that is, the emergency departments. I am confident that we have now got together the series of initiatives, and provided the money to support them, that will have the best possible chance of ensuring a relatively trouble-free winter.
Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: Absolutely; I would not find it acceptable under any circumstances for budgetary considerations to be the criteria for admission to hospital. The combination of initiatives to which I just referred indicates a genuine desire to reflect, in the budgetary allocation for the service provision, what we are hearing from the doctors and nurses on the front line. We must make sure that we are reflecting what they think will help. I neglected to mention before that the soon-to-be-opened general practitioner clinics in association with emergency departments will also help to take pressure off the emergency departments, not at the acute end where people need hospital admission, but at the lesser end, where people are sitting for hour after hour in emergency departments waiting for treatment, whether it be for a sick child or themselves. All these things have come about as a result of very focused attention on what everyone recognises to be one of the greatest problems facing our public hospitals; that is, the emergency departments. I am confident that we have now got together the series of initiatives, and provided the money to support them, that will have the best possible chance of ensuring a relatively trouble-free winter.
Absolutely; I would not find it acceptable under any circumstances for budgetary considerations to be the criteria for admission to hospital. The combination of initiatives to which I just referred indicates a genuine desire to reflect, in the budgetary allocation for the service provision, what we are hearing from the doctors and nurses on the front line. We must make sure that we are reflecting what they think will help. I neglected to mention before that the soon-to-be-opened general practitioner clinics in association with emergency departments will also help to take pressure off the emergency departments, not at the acute end where people need hospital admission, but at the lesser end, where people are sitting for hour after hour in emergency departments waiting for treatment, whether it be for a sick child or themselves. All these things have come about as a result of very focused attention on what everyone recognises to be one of the greatest problems facing our public hospitals; that is, the emergency departments. I am confident that we have now got together the series of initiatives, and provided the money to support them, that will have the best possible chance of ensuring a relatively trouble-free winter.

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