health report
Removing Barriers of Digital Transformation in Healthcare
Health measures in Budget 2022 Budget 2022 identifies “immediate actions to address waiting lists” as the most urgent health priority for next year, before implementing a long-term multiannual plan for waiting lists in both hospitals and community health services. While Budget 2022 provided more than €1.1 billion for the expansion and modernisation of the health service, delivery was impeded by the Covid-19 surge last winter and the subsequent HSE cyberattack in May 2021. Consequently, not all the measures planned for 2021 will be delivered by the end of the year. Regardless, the additional funding provided during 2021 has been again made available for 2022. Indeed, an additional allocation of €1 billion, including over €300 million for new measures, has been added for 2022, increasing overall core funding allocation for current expenditure to over €20.4 billion. Referencing the pandemic as “the greatest challenge that has ever faced our health system”, Minister Donnelly asserts that Budget 2022 is a demonstration of the Government’s
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commitment to deliver universal healthcare. Identifying his most urgent priority in 2022 as “taking immediate action to address waiting lists which are unacceptably high at present”. As such, the Department of Health, the HSE, and the National Treatment Purchase Fund are collaborating on a multiannual waiting list plan which will seek to resolve the backlog associated with the Covid-19 pandemic and align waiting lists with Sláintecare objectives. Another priority he emphasises is investment in women’s health, which will be boosted by an additional €31 million in 2022. This will fund the phased introduction of free contraception, beginning with women aged from 17 to 25, as well as measures to address period poverty and expand clinics for endometriosis and menopause.
Credit: Merrion Street
