Thread by @dj_breathnach

I've found something in the budget that quite frankly shows a complete mockery of every announcement government makes. I believe the health press conference is tomorrow so I'll be tagging a few journos at the end of this 🧵in the hope that it will be brought up tomorrow. /1

It's actually quite infuriating and has me boiling with rage as given the last 2 years we have had I don't think its acceptable and I think it should genuinely be a potential reason for this government to fall, they have let us down. Let's begin.../2

At the beginning of the pandemic we all know our ICU capacity was one of the lowest in Europe and was a huge factor in us being forced into long protracted lockdowns as our ICUs filled up rapidly with people in respiratory failure and crisis. /3

We had between 237 and 255 ICU beds in Ireland at the beginning of the pandemic at a rate of about 5 per 100'000 population. The European average is 11.5 ICU beds per 100'000 population to to hut average, we would need 575 ICU beds in the country. /4

Last December, despite failing to significantly increase ICU capacity throughout 2020 Minister @DonnellyStephen announced plans to increase this capacity to 446 critical care beds in 2021, an incidence of 8.9 beds per 100'000 population./5

gov.ie/en/press-relea…

This plan was criticised at the time, including by me as not going far enough, and also a clear continuation of the geographical neglect of healthcare outside of Cork and Dublin, with some crumbs to Limerick. Car crashes etc happen in the Midlands, SE and NW too ya know... /6

That being said, a plan and funding and the location for the beds announced on the 18th December. The catastrophic reopening for Christmas overseen by @MichealMartinTD @LeoVaradkar and @EamonRyan saw a January and February from hell for those in acute hospitals.... /7

The case, and need for even more ICU capacity across the nation to minimum EU levels of 575 beds is surely case closed no? They're an absolute necessity. I don't think a single person would disagree. Well it appears @DonnellyStephen @Paschald and @mmcgrathtd do...../8

Cork North Central TD @ColmBurkeTD for @FineGael has written about how amazing this budget is for healthcare. It would appear Colm has no idea what he is talking about. Life is easy for one of the richest TDs in Dáil Éireann, representing a predominantly working class area.../9

You see Colm must have been paying Eamon Ryan levels of attention in December. He seems to think that increasing our ICU capacity to 340 is something to celebrate, which clearly is over 100 beds less than was promised in December for 2021. /10

Source:
finegael.ie/budget-2022-me…

So our government, has announced over 100 less ICU beds today for next year than it did in December for this year. Quite frankly I'm disgusted. I hope @DonnellyStephen as well as @ColmBurkeTD from FG and @neasa_neasa from GP get dragged from pillar to post on this. /11

And I hope our excellent journalists press on this. Because it's incredibly important. In order to open up on Octobrr 22nd we need to have a healthcare system that can prevent COVID deaths. Critical care beds are what does that. Hold these overpaid politicians to account. End.

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