The Opposition has responded derisively to the Government's health strategy launched yesterday, criticising it for failing to tackle the unfairness within the system and for falling short of what was required to reform it.
The Fine Gael health spokesman, Mr Gay Mitchell, said the strategy was a "fig leaf for Fianna Fβil and the PDs to hide the scandal of a crumbling health service at a time of economic boom".
He pointed out that in a 1993 Fianna Fβil health strategy it was stated that waiting times of over 12 months for adults in the specialities with the largest problems would be eliminated.
The new strategy, over eight years later, was basically the same, he said. "The more things change the more they remain the same," said Mr Mitchell.
The document, he said, was a wish list and there was no incentive for reform.
"Pouring money into the same failed and tired system is not the way forward. These cosmetic proposals will not improve the supply situation next week or next month. Medical and nursing staff will have to deal with the same problems."
He asked where was the promised reform, saying there was to be no major change which would bring about accountability for the health service or the taxpayers' money. "More money will be poured down the same black hole. We are promised more bureaucracy, not less. Health Boards are simply to be 'reviewed'."
Mr Mitchell asked where was the commitment to a "Dublin weighting" payment to bring nurses back to hospitals in the capital. "How many consultants and nurses are to be recruited? Where is the imperative for change? Where is the competition between the providers? There were 38,000 working in the health service in 1990, now there are 88,000. How will they be incentivised to produce the service we need?"
The Labour health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, described the strategy as an opportunity squandered.
It failed, she said, to tackle the central issue of inequality in the health services which continued to discriminate against the less well off.
"There is no radical appraisal of health facilities set out in this document. There has been no attempt to put the principle of equality at the centre of our health system. As the Minister for Finance has already indicated, there is nothing substantially new in the strategy. It does not advance a reform agenda of any substance. Any long-term thinking has been sacrificed for short-term political needs."
The two-tier system, she said, was to be extended. "The idea that the private sector should provide services to the public sector is not a new one. It is 10 years old. It is merely formalised in today's strategy. It is presented here as the Government's quick fix solution to the waiting lists problem - the rabbit pulled out of a hat. It is no such thing and past experience shows that."
The Green Party health spokesman, Mr John Gormley, said the strategy fell short on quality and fairness and was "too late in the day in the lifetime of this Government".
The problem with the strategy, he said, was its failure to tackle the vested interests in the health service.
"The personal fiefdoms of the consultants will continue, the maladministration of the health boards will continue, and the separate waiting lists for public and private patients will continue."
Sinn FΘin's TD, Mr Caoimhgh∅n ╙ Caolβin, said: "The Government has bought the PDs' pre-election gimmick on waiting lists. This will involve further public funding going into the private system and public patients being sent abroad while we still have private beds in public hospitals."