Two tier health leads to more tears!

IRELAND'S two-tier health system is the main impediment to public confidence in the health service. This is according to Cllr Michael O'Brien who recently attended a meeting of the Health Services Executive (HSE) Forum in Cork.

 

Speaking at the meeting he said that he agreed with the positive intention of the HSE to reconfigure acute services only on what is in the best interests of the patient. He said that the best politicians

he ever met were in the medical profession, who, he alleged, tended to close ranks when it suited themselves.

“It is the medical profession – not politicians or administrators – who decide who gets into hospital and when and what treatment they receive. A vast majority of patients have good experiences of such treatment and of the care they receive from staff at every level. However, for those who are financially bereft, getting into hospital as early as possible is often the problem,” he said.

He added that as long as vested interests, which often control equality of access to patients’ needs, continues to exist, the issues of reform will be misunderstood.

Cllr O’Brien praised the frankness of Dr Colm Quigley, Clinical

Leadperson of the ‘Reconfigureation and Reform Group’ currently

analysing future development of Acute South East Hospitals.

The purpose of Dr Quigley’s presentation was to update the political

representatives on the Forum in all of the South East counties plus

Cork and Kerry, with issues being considered by the Reconfiguration

Group.

Dr Quigley assured the councillors that building a political concensus on how to best regulate medical resources on behalf of the patient underpins all of the Steering Group’s considerations.

Referring to the European Working Time Directive, he said that clinicians in every discipline will soon be forced to comply with health and safety regulations restricting their per week working hours.

At present, some hospital doctors are working as much as 70 hours per

week. Fewer permitted hours will mean that some non-emergency services will be curtailed in all acute hospitals in the region, including St Luke’s General Hospital in Kilkenny, as early as July this year.

Mr O’Brien said that his elected Forum colleagues in Carlow and Kilkenny greatly appreciated the comprehensive information that they recently received from front-line management in Kilkenny. He said that to prevent mistakes, any proposed long-term changes must address the festering issue of equality of access.