HSE €600m Winter Plan caters for ‘momentary disaster helps’

Temporary measures in support of the GP crisis are planned to support one-handed and two-doctor practices

For this winter, temporary crisis support measures for general medicine are planned in the "short-term tactical plan" of the Health Service Executive (HSE), which will be in force until April next year.

Failure of individual general practitioners due to the illness of the core staff or excessive demand due to the ability to provide services would have a negative impact on hospital emergency departments, after-hours general practitioner services, and other stressed local practices. kept the plan going.

The EUR 600 million winter plan 2020/21 launched this morning (Thursday) said that several general practitioners' practices did not have the infrastructure to stream large amounts of Covid-19 and non-Covid people in accordance with national recommendations.

The plan described the temporary supports as essential to ensure that one-handed and two-doctor offices, which made up 15 percent and 24 percent of general practitioners, respectively, did not experience practice failure and / or GP burnout.

Every crisis management team in the region should develop and manage the ability to respond to actual or impending errors in local practices or services outside of business hours.

Community assessment hubs should be realigned as part of the plan. Individuals with Covid-19 who felt uncomfortable in the community should continue to be referred by their GP to attend a scheduled appointment in the Community Assessment Hub and conduct further clinical assessments.

In addition, this initiative aims to accept referrals from general practitioners for people in the community who need an assessment for an acute respiratory illness without Covid-19.

Access to diagnostics should be improved as part of the Winter General Practice Plan.

In the event of a significant increase, it would be necessary to use capacity from the acute private sector, according to the HSE plan.

To meet the bed capacity requirements, the plan envisaged the use of private acute care facilities at an estimated cost of EUR 59 million in 2021. This included engaging these facilities to ensure the continuity of the electoral process so that maximum unscheduled emergency care is a priority in public acute hospitals.

The HSE calculated that 70 percent of productivity could be achieved before Covid.

The winter plan provided for the current capacity to be expanded by 17 intensive care beds: Almost 500 additional acute beds are to be available in hospitals such as the Cork, Mercy, Clonmel, Mater and Limerick hospitals.

It was recognized that the impact of the "slowdown" in cancer care was significant as the centers now struggled to reach pre-Covid levels. It was expected that additional resources would increase patient care in breast, lung and prostate rapid access clinics. This would help address the Covid-19 backlog in patients and the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on the capacity of all cancer services.

The plan envisaged that the current maximum capacity (Covid restrictions) for participation within target access times could be increased by an average of 15 percent.

valerie.ryan@imt.ie