Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly: While highlighting productivity with healthcare chiefs, he has been fighting with the Department of Public Expenditure over why the health service needs more money. Photograph: Brendan Gleesonchairman Ciarán Devane about visiting one hospital where local doctors had been campaigning for greater investment in the face of rising admissions and emergency department attendances.
Donnelly said that given the doctors at the hospital were dedicated and motivated, there was a need to understand what was driving this trend.My friend Amy Winehouse: ‘It makes me sad that she died alone in that big house in Camden’ At the same time as Donnelly was highlighting productivity issues with healthcare chiefs, he was fighting with the Department of Public Expenditure over why the health service needed so much additional money.
“Our analysis shows the large divergence present in all sites between the expenditure and workforce provided, relative to the growth in either separate activity metrics or ‘composite’ activity.“ The latter is an aggregate of activity in inpatient, day-case, outpatient and emergency departments, weighted by unit costs for each area.