Despite some improvement in health outcomes in the Republic, the latest OECD report shows we continue to lag behind other countries across a range of significant parameters. Health at a Glance 2015, which provides international comparisons of health status, risk factors to health, access to care and quality of care, ranks us bottom third in many measures of health performance.
And while some 82 per cent of the adult population here perceive their health to be good or very good, compared to the OECD average of only 69 per cent, the more objective measures listed in this year’s OECD report card suggest this optimistic perception may be misplaced. We have the highest rate of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) hospital admissions of 32 countries surveyed; the case fatality rate for the most common type of stroke puts us at 24th in a similar league table; and we are placed in the bottom third of countries for alcohol consumption and obesity levels.
It is evident that too many lives are still lost in OECD countries because healthcare quality is improving too slowly to cope with ageing populations and the growing number of people with multiple chronic diseases; this despite a steady growth in health spending in most countries surveyed. Irish health spending is close to the OECD average, at 8.1 per cent of gross domestic product, but it fell at a faster rate between 2009 and 2013 than in any other country, apart from Greece and Luxembourg.
The complexity of healthcare provision is reflected in the finding that no country consistently performs at the top of the country ranking on key indicators of quality of care. There is especially room for improvement in all OECD countries in the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of a range of conditions. But a necessary time-lag in the currency of the data available to the OECD must also be acknowledged.
Health at a Glance 2015 must inform key political decisions taken by government if we are to significantly improve health outcomes for Irish people.