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Govt health record is a trail of broken promises

Issued : Wednesday 5 July, 2006

This is a welcome opportunity to set the record straight and to look at the actual record of this Government as opposed to its rhetoric. The trail of broken promises and cynical posturing by Ministers has alienated even committed Fianna Fail voters and I notice that the Taoiseach, in his desperation to convince, at every opportunity uses the phrase ‘the Government working with the people’.

His spin doctors have obviously told him that the people understand all too clearly how he and his Government have lost touch with the people and their concerns. And somehow the Taoiseach is trying to gather some cover for himself by reinforcing a message that he and his government are working with the people.

But nobody is fooled.

At the last election the Taoiseach made promises to end hospital waiting lists within two years. Last week in the Seanad the leader senator Mary O’Rourke said on the record of these promises that ‘they were untruths as well’. Her words not mine. She is right. The Government has hidden hospital waiting lists but they haven’t gone away. 20,000 people are still waiting for surgical procedures and others for medical ones. Some are waiting over 12 months. NONE of the much-vaunted waiting targets set out in the Health Strategy have been met. And the hidden hordes of public patients waiting to get an appointment to see a specialist are no nearer getting relief. In the West of Ireland there are four year waiting lists in some specialities.

On Health the Government’s amendment to our motion tonight is full of untruths as well. It is full of self congratulation and self delusion. But we only have to consider how we compare internationally to get a true picture. The 2006 Euro Health Consumer Index puts the Irish health service second last out of 25 OECD countries.

Long waiting lists, bleak medical outcomes, bad scores for infant deaths, MRSA infections in hospitals and the lack of a health ombudsman typify the index findings. We are second only to Lithuania and instead of hanging his head in shame our Taoiseach came into the House last night and tried to flim flam us again.

This of course is the same Taoiseach who described as unintelligent people who had the temerity to complain when their loved ones are left on trolleys in casualty. ‘It’s a pity that people are so unintelligent,’ he said.

That barefaced effrontery of the Taoiseach and his government is most evident in the part of their amendment dealing with the Health Service Executive. Now whatever the HSE is it is certainly not bringing unified management to major projects in Information technology, nor is it achieving national service standards or best value for money. It is a laughable that any Government would claim this of a bureaucratic muddle that it created. The HSE is incoherent in its management structures, unaccountable and known for its secrecy, lethargic to an extreme in improving standards. And as for value for money? Need I mention the debacle of PPARS in order to set the record straight?

I don’t blame the staff within the HSE nor its Chief Executive. But I do hold to account the Minister for Health Mary Harney who from day one, mishandled the transfer from the old system of administration to the new. Her pigheadedness in failing to prepare and plan properly has caused endless problems. Most importantly there are real dangers arising from the lack of accountability within the health service. That is one lesson that should have been learned from the contaminated blood scandal and the Mr Neary scandal but the system has actually become less accountable, less democratic, less transparent that it was before the HSE was established.

And this breakdown pervades the entire system now. I received a reply from the Minister for Health last week about a simple case of an elderly man looking for home help. I sent in my letter in August 2005 and my reply came back last week.

When we do get information it reveals a very different picture to the one the Government is trying to present. After persistent questioning I now know that far from increasing community services this Government is presiding over serious cutbacks. Since 1997 there has been a significant reduction of long stay community beds for the elderly. There are 41 vacancies in public health nurses. We are 100 down when it comes to public health doctors. These are the professionals that work at the coal face and their numbers are being slashed at a time when the Taoiseach and Tanaiste are still telling us untruths.