Sir, – The current Government has been clear from the outset that our plans for the health service are a two-term project. In light of this, accusations of short-term thinking (Ray Kinsella, Opinion, February 5th) are somewhat strange.
So far, our work has been to lay the building blocks towards universal health insurance. Much progress has been made in areas that need to be tackled before this can become a reality. A 33 per cent reduction in the number of patients waiting on trolleys, a 99 per cent reduction in inpatient and day case waiting lists above eight months and a 96 per cent reduction in the outpatient list are good indications our plan is working.
It is easy to blame the troika for all of our woes, but there was a time when the health budget increased by an extra billion each year and none of this progress was achieved. Problems which seriously, painfully affected patients were accepted as endemic and money was thrown at them ineffectually. I fundamentally disagree with this approach and believe radical reform is the only answer.
Commentary on the HSE service plan has missed important content: plans to abolish the HSE and establish the Healthcare Commissioning Agency; establishment of the Patient Safety Agency; the phased implementation of Money Follows the Patient to radically change the way hospitals are funded; the next steps in the transition from hospital groups to hospital trusts.
Free GP care for all children under six will be introduced later this year as the first step towards universal free GP care. One new primary care centre is opening each month. A new national children’s hospital to serve generations of Irish children will start construction in 2015. A White Paper on universal health insurance will be published shortly. We’ve published the McLoughlin report on the health insurance market and are looking to its recommendations to drive down costs and deal with affordability problems.
We have a long way to go and there will always be bumps along the road, but I never doubt that our plan will deliver a health service where everyone feels safe and that makes us all proud. – Yours, etc,
Dr JAMES REILLY,
Minister for Health,
Hawkins House,
Dublin 2.