Healthcare in Ireland
@HSELive @roinnslainte #CancelTheContract

1/ I am not going to start this tweet and talk about the public vs the private system. I have no interest in starting arguments. It’s totally unhelpful to the discussion.

2/ As I have said before, nothing in binary, there can and should always be a balanced discussion for most things. But I do fear that we are increasingly too for or against. We are lacking balance and a middle ground.

3/ I have said many times we need a better public health system. We need more efficient funding of the public system, more beds, more outpatients, more doctors and nurses. We need to replace the outdated radiology scanners like CT and MRI, we need to increase theatre capacity.

4/ But it still shocks me that over 2 million people who have paid for their health insurance have been completely cast aside by the State and the HSE.

5/ These are people, taxpayers, who have decided to pay twice out of their own pockets to ensure they can access healthcare for themselves and their loved ones.

6/ They have decided to sacrifice other things in order to ensure that they don’t become part of a long waiting list for outpatients/diagnostics/procedures.

7/ Perhaps these 2.2 million people haven’t realised it yet that their health insurance is currently worthless. They cannot access a hospital of their choice, they have been denied continuity of care with their specialist who may have been looking after them for decades

8/ Their urgent procedures or infusions or surgeries have been cancelled. They have been told by the HSE that they must restart their journey at the back of the public queue.

9/ Perhaps there are people out there without health insurance who may feel this is a victory, feel some inner joy that a patient with health insurance now knows what it’s like to be in a queue. But now the public queue is even longer

10/ Public or private, its not about that. It’s about patients, about trying to ensure the best care possible for you, the patient. I’m afraid at present we need the private sector, because we haven’t achieved as yet what needs to be achieved in the public system.

11/ Nationalising private hospitals may sound great, but who pays- you do. The Irish taxpayer will be asked to pay more in taxes. Any promised wage increases will be cancelled. Many of the planned housing developments to tackle the housing crisis will be delayed.

12/ And yet the health insurers continue at present to have a free ride during this crisis. They could and should be paying for the care of 50% of patients currently in hospital, but the State has said no, because it wants to be seen to be pursuing a single tier system

13/ But the two clear observations now should be - are you the taxpayer happy to fund this, and are those who have paid health insurance for years happy that your insurance is worthless and your care now has to start again.

13/ So I do feel anxious about the State wishing to buy private hospitals to increase public capacity. Our total capacity (public and private) in Ireland suboptimal based on our population. We need more beds rather than just taking beds from one sector and putting into the other.