International reports expose govt failure on health
Issued : Wednesday 29 June, 2005
The Labour Party Spokesperson on Health, Deputy Liz McManus, has today stated that new international research clearly demonstrates public discontent with the health service, and highlights the Government’s failure to deliver badly needed improvements.
Deputy McManus commented, “Two recently published reports, one by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, and the second by the OECD, show that in terms of the quality of our health and social services and in total health spending, Ireland lags behind other EU countries.
“Today’s EFILWC report reveals that Ireland’s health and social services are well behind the average of the pre-enlargement EU 15 Member States. Moreover, whilst our social services compare favourably against those in the 10 accession states, our health services are only marginally better.
“Second, despite government claims to the contrary, OECD figures show that our total health spend for 2002 was only 7.3% of GDP, which is more than 1% lower than the average across other OECD countries.
“This information emerges in the face of oft-repeated claims from the Tanaiste and the Minister for Health about improved levels of health spending. This may be the case, but the fact remains that we are still not meeting international standards despite the economic prosperity of recent years.
“Moreover, the OECD report also states that in 2002 the number of acute hospital beds was three for every 1000 of the population. Whilst this is also below the European average of 4.1 per 1000, it comes at a time when there are fewer hospital beds per head of population than there were in 1999.
“These reports expose the Government’s failure to provide a health service that meets, never mind exceeds, international norms. At a time of unprecedented prosperity our health service, quite simply, fails to measure up.”
