Prescription charge likely to be retained in budget

Minister for Health Leo Varadkar is resisting calls for a reduction in the €2.50 per item prescription charge in next month's budget.

The St Vincent de Paul and other voluntary bodies told the Minister in a meeting yesterday that many patients were not taking their medication because the charge was too high. Former Minister for Health James Reilly originally promised to abolish the charge, but instead increased it five-fold from 50c.

Mr Varadkar said there was a role for co-payments such as the prescription charge because they made people think twice about spending, provided they were pitched low enough.

He said he didn’t leave anyone he met under the illusion that he could reduce the charge, which brings in €100 million a year, and there was very little potential for “give-back” at present, he added.

Minister of State at the Department Kathleen Lynch said officials had identified a number of premises, including HSE-owned hospitals, to use as step-down facilities and reduce the pressure on hospital beds.

Delayed discharges

Ms Lynch said the health service needed “several Mount Carmels” in order to tackle the problem of delayed discharges from acute hospitals.

The HSE recently bought the former private hospital at Mount Carmel for €11 million.

She said up to 700 people were in inappropriate beds and “this clearly can’t go on”.

There were particular difficulties in Dublin, Cork and Limerick, but problems were emerging elsewhere, too.

She said a plan had been drawn up and submitted to the Department of Public Expenditure, but it would take three years to roll out.

The Ministers were speaking to reporters after a consultative meeting in the Aviva Stadium with 200 representatives of about 100 organisations working in the health sector.

At the meeting, Mr Varadkar outlined his 10 priorities for the next 18 months.

These include a realistic budget, stabilising the cost of health insurance and reducing the cost of medicines.

He also aims to retain doctors and nurses in the health service, introduce free GP care for under-sixes and over-70s and complete the formation of new hospital groups.

Other priorities are five major capital projects, measures to tackle the problem of delayed discharges, universal patient registration and the Healthy Ireland Council measures designed to tackle obesity and alcohol and tobacco misuse.

Longer-term projects over the next five years include the introduction of multi-annual budgets for the health service, the extension of free GP and dental care and the reconfiguration of services into hospital trusts.

Further priorities for Mr Varadkar include universal health insurance, the reorganisation of trauma and maternity services and the completion of the National Children's Hospital, the Central Maternity Hospital and the National Maternity Hospital projects.