Free GP care to all under-12s among Fianna Fáil's health pledges
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Free GP care extended to all children under 12 years of age is one of the pledges in Fianna Fáil's general election health policy, launched on Thursday.
Children would also be banned from buying high-caffeine energy drinks and benefit from more protections through the Online Health Taskforce.
Stephen Donnelly said if he is re-elected in Wicklow he wants to continue as health minister and finish reforms already begun.
Other potentially vote-catching promises are the monthly maximum payment under the Drugs Payment Scheme reduced from €80 to €40 over the lifetime of government.
Patients would see hospital car parking charges capped at €10 per day.
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Waiting times for outpatient care, which have dropped from 13 months to an average of seven months, will continue to be targeted. The aim is for wait times of 10-12 weeks.
The Government has already committed to building three elective hospitals including one in Cork which is at the design stage. Fianna Fáil's plan would see that increase to four.
The party also pledged a seventh surgical hub adding to six being built — only one of those is set to open this year.
In terms of University Hospital Limerick, Mr Donnelly defended the supports already given.
The new policy pledges to “implement in full the Hiqa recommendations from the Midwest capacity review".
“If Hiqa recommend a second ED (emergency department) and they recommend a new hospital to go with that, Fianna Fáil is committed to delivering that,” Mr Donnelly said.
The policy commits to opening more beds at UHL and across the Midwest. This would be in addition to 118 beds already added, he said, highlighting the ongoing construction of a 96-bed block with more to come.
“When you add them up, we will have doubled the beds just in UHL,” he said.
In community care, Fianna Fail says it will increase GP numbers by 1,500 during its next term in office if re-elected.
Cancer patients would see €35m allocated in ringfenced, additional annual funding. The Bowelscreen and BreastCheck programmes would expand and clinical trials would double in number.
The party also re-committed to designing a statutory homecare scheme. This was first proposed in 2017, although work has started on this.
Among other issues, Fianna Fáil would introduce wide-ranging restrictions on vaping including packaging, flavours, and advertising.
Disadvantaged communities would benefit from a programme of intensive health supports similar to how Deis schools are supported.
On his election hopes, Mr Donnelly said: “I think we are halfway through what needs to be done. I think we have been working very hard with our amazing healthcare workers to turn probably the biggest oil tanker in our country and the most important one. It is turning.”