The Government is falling into the trap of pouring money into healthcare under the mistaken assumption that capital is all that is needed to improve services in the Republic, it was claimed at a conference on population health at University College Cork.
Mr Moore McDowell, of the Economics Department in UCD, told the conference that society had a tendency to believe the level of spending on healthcare was a good guide to the quality of service being provided. "But if you think that, you must believe that doubling healthcare spending over the last five years, and in increasing it by over 50 per cent in real terms, the last government provided a commensurate increase to the output of health care services. Is there anyone here who really believes that or anything close to it?"
Speaking on Saturday, Mr McDowell said many economists would argue that all the evidence suggests we could have done better by spending less and spending it differently.
But to do that, he claims, would have meant severe problems for those whose livelihoods are bound up with operating the healthcare system as it is.
He added that waiting lists were unavoidable in a system that provides a right to treatment at zero cost, but expects treatment to be provided with no incremental flow of revenue to the provider.
"If you are perplexed by the persistence of waiting lists, ask yourself why are there no waiting lists to get a car repaired after an accident, but a two-year waiting list to get a hip repaired?"