A seven day health service will mean “huge improvements for patients”, Ciara Kelly has predicted. 

The health service has reached an agreement with unions that will see more staff rostered to work in emergency departments on the weekend. 

The Government hopes the agreement will reduce the number of patients left languishing on hospital trolleys and speed up discharges. 

At first, staff will be asked to volunteer to work on the weekends; however, those hired after 2008 are contractually obliged to do so. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, presenter and former GP Ciara Kelly said it is shocking that so few currently do so. 

“We have a huge cohort of people who have been contractually obliged to work five days out of seven for the last 17 years and have never been made to do so,” she said. 

“That tells you everything you need to know about the power of the unions; more than half of them were obliged to do this anyway and it turns out they have been doing it anyway. 

“This will be a gamechanger; we have always seen a surge in trolley numbers on a Monday or Tuesday after a public holiday.” 

An ambulance in Dublin. Picture by: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie.

Ciara added that part of the blame for the current state of the health service lies with the unions, who argued against proposals that would mean more staff rostered on the weekend. 

“I bet you, we will see huge improvements for patients and that is the key thing,” she said. 

“That will be down to that being stopped by working practices; since 2008, anyone who has been hired has been contractually obliged to do this and hasn’t been doing so. 

“That tells you an awful lot about the culture.” 

Front entrance to a hospital. Image: Piere Bonbon / Alamy.

Co-presenter Shane Coleman agreed, describing the change as a potential “gamechanger”. 

“We’ve spoken about this before,” he said. 

“The hospital service is generally a five day service and that is a problem because we’ve this amazing equipment, state of the art, that costs millions in many cases to provide and, in many cases, it is lying idle for two days. 

“You’ve got people lying in hospital beds for two days that could be discharged. 

“You go to any of the private hospitals and at 9 o’clock on a Sunday, they’re doing scans and MRIs. 

“That’s what we need to get to in the public sector.” 

Shane added he was “not sure” this agreement would deliver that; however, he described it as a “step in the right direction”. 

“I know I’ve made this point loads of times,” he said. 

“But the health service is built for people who work in it rather than patients - that has to change.”

Main image: Ciara Kelly in the Newstalk studio. Image: Newstalk