Dail Committee hears of need for more acute beds and 'single-tier service'
Congress of Trade Unions today (October 26) told a special Dail Committee that Ireland's health system requires a major programme of 'transformational change" to develop a "universal, fully integrated, single tier public health service that guarantees access and quality care, regardless of income."
Speaking before the Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Healthcare in relation to the Congress Submission on this key issue, General Secretary Patricia King said: "Over the last three decades there have been several proposals to reform the public health service.
"However it is clear that real transformational change has not occurred and we continue to have a dysfunctional system in which the perverse incentives that encourage private over public practice persist, Ms King said in her statement to the Committee.
The Oireachtas Committee was also addressed by Liam Doran, Chair of the Congress Health Sector Committee, who said there was "an immediate requirement for additional acute beds in a number of locations across the country."
'the latest OECD bed to population ratio confirms that Ireland, at 2.8, is significantly below the international norm of five beds per thousand in the population. We have the perfect storm of too few acute beds to cater for demand, with wholly inadequate primary care services."
Mr Doran said it was crucial to the success of the transformation programme that all existing services were maintained "until the alternative models of service, with a much greater emphasis on community based services, are established and fully operational."
He pointed out that a cornerstone of a transformed health service "must be universal eligibility for all health services, beginning with Primary Care Services, provided by directly employed health professionals. Staffing should be on the basis of 'seven over seven" opening and centred on a team approach."
