Cuts of over €1bn will set health service back for decades, O'Sullivan tells conference
Issued : Saturday 28 March, 2009
Statement by Jan O'Sullivan TD
Minister of State, Department of Environment, Community and Local Government with special responsibility for Housing and Planning
Failure to reform unequal and inefficient system in good times leaves patients vulnerable to the economic surgeon's knife
Nowhere will the Government's mishandling of the unprecedented opportunities that they have blown over the past 10 years, be felt more painfully than in the health services. Between 1998 and 2007 spending on the service went up from €3.5 billion to €15 billion. How we could have used that money to build a fair, equitable and efficient service! When the Labour Party's proposals for universal health insurance were launched in 2001 our estimation was that it would bring the cost of running the Health Services up to £7 billion. The spend is now double that but the service is even more inefficient and the treatment of the public and private patient even more unequal.
It is well beyond time for the Government to realise what all of the opposition parties have come to realise that we must have a one-tier system that treats patients on the basis of need and that incentivises the best use of limited resources if we are to fix our health service.
Mary Harney's so-called "reform programme" has been a sham and a very expensive sham. All of the layers of management in the HSE are still in place and on top of them we now have management consultants and spin doctors whose exorbitant wages are in stark contrast to the frontline workers who are being asked to pay the price. Apparently we need these gurus more than we need a vaccine for cervical cancer that can save lives.
A culture of greed has been transplanted into our health service, in accordance with PD ideology with spineless Fianna Fáil and Green Party collusion and, even with the demise of the PDs, they haven't the courage to eradicate it. The intention to plough ahead with co-located private hospitals on public sites, the growing privatisation of Home Care Packages and care of the elderly, the salaries agreed in the new Consultants' contracts, are all evidence that the Government has no intention of abandoning the path they are on despite the failure to reach any of their own targets on extra beds, care in the community and an end to chaos in A & E departments.
Instead, the same old system will be pared back with over €1 billion to be taken out of the planned spend for 2009. The size of the hole in the budget is so big that patient services will be severely cut and waiting times will grow. The predicted rise in unemployment will result in more people qualifying for a medical card and less money coming from the health levy. It is estimated that this will cost the health budget €200 million. Health insurance income to hospitals will undoubtedly drop significantly as well.
The Labour Party has consistently highlighted the madness of focusing on fiscal control in isolation while the loss of jobs is blighting people's lives as well as costing the exchequer substantial amounts in tax foregone, social welfare payments and spending power. It is going to cost the Health budget several hundred million as well, not to mention the adverse health effects associated with unemployment and worry about paying bills.
Side by side with this huge cut back in spending they have the sheer effrontery to tell us that they are ploughing ahead with "reconfiguring" hospitals around the country, cutting back services in places like Nenagh and Ennis and Mallow and Bantry and Sligo and Monaghan and Louth, in the South-East and here in the Midlands; but that we needn't worry because we are all going to end up with better services if we only have faith! Who are they trying to fool? Smaller hospitals have a vital role to play that is both economically good value and a great service to local communities. They are willing to engage in change but they cannot be used as a smokescreen for saving money.
The longer the current Government stays in office, the longer the Irish people have to tolerate a failed model of organising Health Services whose failure is becoming more and more evident as cutbacks bite. Only a new model and a new Government can change that.
