Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Euro Health Consumer Index 2013 ranks Ireland in 14th place and it looks like we are still falling. The Government was elected to office on promises of free general practitioner care for all and universal health insurance. In reality, the Government has cut services and increased health care costs for the public year on year. This year, 35,000 people over the age of 70 years will lose their medical cards due to tougher eligibility rules. They will instead receive GP cards, thereby removing their claim to free medication and public hospital beds while doing away with the exemption from accident and emergency department charges.

The Government's failure in the health service manifests itself most starkly in the number of people on waiting lists. Last September, more than 49,000 people were on hospital waiting lists compared with more than 41,000 in September 2012. Even though the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, accelerated upgrades at Wexford General Hospital at the behest of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, the situation there continues to worsen. Some 280 adults and children were waiting for inpatient and day case appointments at the hospital at the end of September, an increase of 102 on the same period in 2012.

Wexford Hospital is also experiencing direct cuts to resources and a recruitment embargo that has led to junior doctors working excessively long shifts without proper periods of rest. Some doctors are working 36 hours without a break.

All this has been taking place against the backdrop of austerity cuts to the health services that are destroying people's lives. As noted by Michael Taft yesterday, since the beginning of the crisis, health expenditure has been cut by 12.6%, with a further 2.6% cut planned this year. Health spending was once seen as a positive investment that carried tangible economic and social benefits, but now we have a neoliberal government with a different vision. While our public services are getting bad press, the ground is being made fertile for the bogus claim that the private sector must step in to pick up the slack, while failing to mention that this would mean reinforcing the two-tier system where the poor are punished for their inability to pay and the rich are rewarded for their ability to pay. This further entrenches inequality in Ireland, which is currently four times the OECD average. Ministers may claim that they have a different vision on how things should be done, but it is probably a bit far fetched to call it a vision.

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