Health minister Chris Fearne has made the news for promising his constituents that Labour will win with a 40,000 vote majority at the next general election. Fearne is already focusing on his electoral victory because he “doesn’t like losing”. So while he is happily celebrating and counting his chickens before they hatch, I thought it would be appropriate to gently remind him of pending issues he has on his To Do list while he is Minister for Health.
To start off with, he has some burning issues related to the Vitals Global Healthcare contract. I know that he is in no particular hurry to make the details about this dubious deal fully public. But he still needs to explain to us how his government promised an investment of €200 million in health services but, now, it has transpired that, in 2016 alone, we have already paid VGH €16 million.
And these payments are over and above the salaries of ALL health employees (except a very small group of persons directly appointed by Vitals).
The budget for 2017 is already showing a larger spend than the one in 2016, possibly in the range of €22 million. Fearne has quite a bit of explaining to do.
Directly linked to the same contracts, there is also the very urgent issue related to two main unions. MAM, the doctors’ union, and UHM have both made it amply clear that they will not be signing any agreements with the government before the general auditor’s final report on the matter.
However, the auditor himself has also explained that there are other reports which were submitted before the Vitals contracts. This means scrutiny might not commence for the next two years.
Is Fearne happy with this? Is he willing to go ahead without the support of the two unions, which represent the doctors and a wide spectrum of health professionals essential to the health services of our country?
There is another urgent issue, which Fearne is trying desperately to sweep under the carpet – the Nurses and Midwives Council. Actually this is not just another ‘issue’. It is a scandal.
For those who may have forgotten the details, the scandal revolves around the election of the members of this council. This election was apparently rigged, Fearne called for an investigation, and two of the candidates took the matter to court.
In November, I asked the minister to give detailed information about this matter. I specifically asked him about the scrutiny of nurses before they are employed in the national healthcare system. This is an essential part of the work which the council is bound to do and which is specifically stipulated in the law. The council is also the regulatory body of a profession which includes some 6,000 persons.
In his reply to another PQ, which I posed early in November, Fearne admitted that the council has not met since 28 July 2016!
This is shocking information, to say the least, but Fearne seems to find all this ok. No, Minister, it’s not.
On the 30th of November 2016 you specifically replied to my PQ saying that the report of the investigation arrived at your office “today”! You also said that you will be reading the investigative report and would be “reporting back in the coming days”.
Instead, the minister is choosing to continue with his PR exercise, which falsely depicts him as the minister who has all matters under control. And while these pressing issues are burning, he is playing Nero’s harp and counting his victories.
Totally surreal.