Varadkar says cycle of cuts in healthcare is over

Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has said the cycle of cuts in health care is over.

It was revealed yesterday that Mr Varadkar will receive a €500 million supplementary budget estimate this year, with some €300 million to be rolled over into 2015.

The two-year budget deal his department has struck is designed to ensure it can adhere to spending limits without the need for repeated financial bailouts.

“The good news is, the cycle of cuts in health care is over,” he told a conference in Dublin earlier today but cautioned that “we’re not flush with cash”.

“Our spending ceiling is now rising again so it means any savings or efficiencies we do make in our health services will go back into our health services and not into deficits or to pay down debt,” he said.

Mr Varadkar was speaking at the International Street Medicine symposium hosted by Safetynet Ireland and The Street Medicine Institute which looks at health of homeless people and rough sleepers.

He said the number of drug-related deaths was a matter of serious concern and was “surprised” by data from 2011 which showed that there were 60 poisoning deaths from heroin compared to 113 from methadone.

In order to respond to the problem of drug related deaths and overdoses the health service has developed an overdose prevention strategy which recommends making Naloxone routinely available in Ireland, he said.

Naloxone is an antidote to heroin which temporarily reverses the effects of an opiate overdose.

Naloxone is a prescription-only medication in Ireland and an amendment to current legislation would be required for it to be made available to opiate users .

“It is intended that Naloxone can be administered by non medical staff such as care workers, family members and addicts themselves and other people trained in the use of it,” he said.

“There’s no doubt the scale and nature of the drug problem in Ireland is constantly evolving. The emergence new pscyho active substances, the increased strength of cannabis and the prevalence of poly drug use represents serious challenges for our services,” he said.

Mr Varadkar said the area of drug use and deprivation and how it impacts on health is one he will take a personal interest in under his tenure as Minister for Health.

“Under the previous minister, the whole position - and this isn’t a bad thing - was delegated to the Minister for State.”

Mr Varadkar said that responsibility for drugs and drug policy will now full under his remit.

He said the “ social problems left untackled” were a burden on emergency departments and health services and “the cost of not dealing with these things is phenomenal”.