GPs do not want to work after 5.30pm - Ahern

GPs and consultants in accident and emergency departments do not want to work after 5.30pm, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said as he came under renewed Opposition criticism on the state of the health service.

The leaders of Fine Gael, Labour and the Sinn Féin group in the Dáil rounded on the Taoiseach in the wake of the Tánaiste's declaration of a national emergency in A&E departments. But Mr Ahern insisted that it was not a question of resources or staffing but of management.

He said: "The reality is that 411 people have been medically discharged from the main hospitals in this city. They have finished their entire treatment in this city's acute medical hospitals - but they cannot go home for a variety of reasons."

He added that "many GPs do not want to work after 5.30pm. If no GP services are available after 5.30pm and there are no consultants in A&E departments after that time, you can see why there are problems."

He added: "In the past, the argument was about resources, but this is not about resources. Neither is it about staff numbers. It is about how we manage the healthcare system on the accident and emergency side."

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny led the attack asking: "When did the penny drop with the Government?" He added: "The national emergency is driven by a sense of political desperation."

The issue had been raised constantly since 2004. "In 2006 this becomes a national emergency - the penny has dropped. The realisation is clear around the Cabinet table that the people have had enough and do not want any more of this Government which has proven itself to be completely incompetent in dealing with this matter."

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said that those "who are able to keep up with the debate hear conflicting analyses and recommendations. Prof Drumm [chief executive of the Health Service Executive] says one thing, Deputy Harney says another. The Tánaiste is beginning to take on the bewildered bystander persona, so effected by you," he said to the Taoiseach.

"She was on TV last night to say this was something which we cannot put up with, as if she had no responsibility for it or as if somebody on this side of the House was responsible. Who has been in Government all those years? We have now moved from Minister for Health who does not read his brief to one who cannot handle her brief."

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Sinn Féin's Dáil leader, said: "The nation is quite frankly aghast not at what the Tánaiste has discovered but that it has taken her so long to recognise the basis of this discovery - that we have a serious crisis in our A&E units throughout the hospital network." The reality "is that we want to see our public monies invested in public-health provision and not in tax breaks for private healthcare providers who are there to make profit".

But Mr Ahern pointed out that "consultants have extremely strongly-based contracts". He said they would like to get on with negotiations. "We would like the consultants associations to work with us to make these changes as we would also like other sectors in the health service to work to make these changes.

"The Government is not saying it is the responsibility for the HSE and we have nothing to do with it. We spend an enormous amount of time, collectively, working on this issue, which is important for the public."