Mr Brian Cowen compared his stewardship of the Department of Health to "Angola" in the days of the land mines. His successor, Mr Micheál Martin, is recently reported to have said that "Angola is honeymoon country". Such are the difficulties in that Department that every day sees a mixed bag of attack and counter-attack announcements to retain command of the healthcare sector.
The Minster for Health responded to criticism that his Department has neglected to fund replacement equipment and infrastructural upgrades in the health service by announcing an additional €65 million from the National Development Plan yesterday. It is a welcome step, even if the health boards appear to have earmarked the money for general refurbishment. The Minister should be congratulated for continuing to fund the Health Research Board's important long-term objectives at a time when it might have been tempting to place its €4.5 million allocation into more frontline services.
However, the allocation of €5.5 million to the Southern Health Board and the Eastern Regional Health Authority to fund alternative accommodation for patients inappropriately occupying acute hospital beds is an inadequate response to the worsening capacity crisis facing hospital accident and emergency departments in Dublin and Cork. While this money will eventually find its way to the provision of some nursing home beds, the move lacks urgency.
If this represents the Department's response to the chaos seen in Beaumont and the Mater hospitals last weekend, which required more direct intervention, then it could gamble with patients' lives.
Yesterday also saw results from the Voluntary Health Insurance Board, whose members face an additional 8½ per cent increase in annual premiums from next September. The results show that the management of the State-owned company are working steadily towards its privatisation. But it now appears that the Department of Finance is opposed to the sale, which would raise an estimated €300 million, on the grounds that the company's future as a private entity cannot be assured in the current climate.
Financial problems at a privatised VHI are the last thing the Government needs, with some 1.6 million people relying on it to make up the shortcomings of the public health service, and thus the company looks set to remain in State ownership in the medium term.
Yesterday's news represents a mere tinkering around the edges. It will do little to improve confidence in the public health service as the alternative - private health care paid by insurance - grows more expensive.