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Seamus Ryan: Health Matters, or at least it should!
Read more about: Column, Health, Irish Politics, Labour Party
An interesting debate took place in the Dail last week on the Labour Party motion opposing the increasing privatisation of the health service and the consequent further development of the two-tier system of healthcare. This privitisation will result in the building of private hospitals on the grounds of public medical facilities and major tax breaks for private developers to build these super health clinics.
This agenda is being pushed mainly by the Progressive Democrats and is ideologically driven, but they are being ably supported by Fianna Fail. Surely healthcare is something that must be delivered on medical need rather than on income levels? Equality of access must be the cornerstone to our health care policy. But surely this cannot be achieved in a system that is owned by private developers whose primary concern is profit rather than provision of quality health care for all? This is one area where the public are being given a clear choice in the forthcoming election.
This move towards what Pat Rabbitte describes as “for-profit medicine” must be resisted. The problems in the health service are many but they will not be solved by the building of a plethora of private hospitals througout the country. These hospitals are being built with generous tax breaks that are costing the tax payer plenty in this country. Mary Harney continues to argue that these hospitals will create extra beds that will ultimately free up public beds in our hospitals. But how can this be as long as consultants in Irish hospitals have contracts which also allow them to engage in private practice and continue to use these beds as part of their practice?
The Labour Party is proposing, amongst other measures, immediate major investment in 1,500 step-down beds to provide appropriate care for those who no longer require acute hospital care. This will ultimately reduce the pressure on our hospitals.
Arguably, healthcare will be the major issue in the next election, with problems in our Accident and Emergency, the deficit in care for our elderly, as well as problems in bed capacity in our major hospitals all contributing to a health service that is creaking at the seams. When the government announced the reform of the health service a number of years ago, it failed to deal with the issue of bed capacity.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, hundreds of medical beds were removed from the system with the closure of many of the smaller hospitals in the country. Ever since, we have been playing catch-up as we try to provide for an aging population and the demands that this puts on our health system. Despite having nearly 10 years to address this problem, this FF/PD government has failed miserably with serious consequences for all those dependent on the health service.
What will be interesting over the coming months will be the proposals to come from the Labour Party and Fine Gael in order to deal with the crisis. Pat Rabbitte has quite clearly, and quite rightly in my opinion, nailed his colours to the mast regarding the development of private hospitals on the grounds of our public hospitals when he said last that “Health is a community service, not a market commodity.”
Another area of health provision that tends not to receive great publicity is the area of mental health. Long since considered the Cinderella of the health service, mental health provision has suffered from a lack of priority funding over the past decades. I am always impressed by the dedication of those that work in the mental health service despite it not being the priority health service for successive governments.
The Labour Party has however published a policy document in this area, which may help in raising the profile of this vital service to our communities. This policy sets out clear commitments in the area of Adult Mental Health Services, Suicide and Child and Adolescent Services. I intend to return to this document in greater detail in the next few weeks.
seamus
good to see someone in the labour party espousing their policies
i want to see the government change
i live in dn north-central but i want to see the difference in policies on really important issues like housing for everyone, social housing, so called affordable housing, and every other kind
i also want my children to leave home before my death -know what i mean ?
this idea of publishing policies in the last three weeks of a campaign in small paragraphs is not acceptable
the idea that any party doesnt want to reveal their policies to the other side aint good enough - what about us your supporters - theres four votes in my house -and i will influence them believe you me -or theyll starve ……..
have a word in the ear of someone will ya?
The tax-incentives to private-hospitals are a good thing because they help take pressure off the public-hospital system.
the sites been handed over for these private hospitals are owned by the state - the people - are they paying the market price for these sites ? not a bit of it
are they paying the market price for these sites ? not a bit of it
Are they paying for the sites that they already have? No.
So how is the PD’s proposel of making these people pay their own costs unlike the current situation where the state pays the costs and the private sector takes the profit.
primary concern is profit rather than provision of quality health care for all.
Come on do consultants do it primarily for the health care. NO. If they did they would have no problem with taking a pay cut. They provide a service and get paid for providing a service. No one has a problem with that. Private hosipidels provide a servivce and get paid for it as well. What is the difference?
I dislike this hostility to the private-sector that is the ideological stable diet of the Left. Look, we have enough experience to know that the old-style “throw money at the public sector” approach was not working. The evidence of the 45% fall in numbers on Dublin trollies is that involving the private-sector is working. Furthermore, it takes just 2 yrs to build a private-hospital compared to 12 (because of red tape) for a public-hospital. Which would you prefer? Waiting 2 yrs or 12? Get real!
“Furthermore, it takes just 2 yrs to build a private-hospital compared to 12 (because of red tape) for a public-hospital”
Brian
I would be interested in seeing the proof of this statement. If you have a link to where you got your information I would be grateful - Seamus
Can’t find a link but it took 2 yrs to build the Beacon hospital and I am 100% certain I have repeatedly heard about the 12 yr figure in the broadcast media recently - particularly on radio. It took At least that long to build Beaumont Hospital in Dublin. Labour’s plans to scrap private-hospital contracts are based on one thing and one thing only - ideological prejudice against the private-sector. They need to get their heads out of the writings of Karl Marx.
brian boru
a well known doctor of the left was admitted to the blackrock clinic for surgery and he kept a diary of the all the proceedures and tablets etc administered to him
he had cover
he went on the late late show with gay byrne and explained that the extraordinary bill he got indicated that those who built the hospital had to get back the capital borrowed to build and fit it out -in this case they were doctors.
he was the late dr paddy leahy who believed that all patients should be treated the same ….
you accuse labour of ideological prejudice and you suffer from ?
It’s interesting to note that Fine Gael didn’t co-sign this motion. Most of the Labour-FG motions over the past few months have been joint motions. And before someone says “they supported it”, the vote on Private Members motions is actually on government amendments, not on the private motion itself.
To support Private Hospitals we will pay for it twice. We will pay exorbitant premia to get Health Insurance and this cost is growing - VHI will increase by 15% each year. Then the people who cannot afford those payments will rely on the Public Systems, which will not be able to provide the servcies because they have been run down so much. The Minister then tells us that the public patient will be treated in the private facility and will be paid for by the taxpayer. These costs will increase and taxes will have to increase. Private hospitals treat cases that make money while the public system will still have to provide the services for the longterm and chronic illnesses, which will now lose the financial benefits of treating the money making procedures and all the time the investors cream off the profits and head out of the country with them. Some system!!