Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom aitheantas a thabhairt do na buntáistí atá ag baint le cúrsaí sláinte. In order to discover what people think of our health services, I chatted with some friends who work in the service and asked them to highlight its particularly positive aspects. The first aspect to which they all referred - I completely agree with them in this regard - is the national cancer screening service. There is an excellent quality of care available to people who develop cancer. The second aspect to which they referred was equality of access in the context of the ambulance service. In other countries, particularly the United States, when an ambulance arrives at the scene of an accident, for example, the crew will first obtain the details in respect of a person's health insurance before taking him or her to hospital. That does not happen here. The third aspect they highlighted relates to the fact that the majority of staff in the health service are excellent and that they, particularly those taken on in recent years, are very highly educated. With the increased use of technology and improvements in IT, a great deal more research is being shared across the Continent.

We also discussed the disadvantages and negative aspects relating to the health service. Obviously, the first negative aspect which my friends identified was the moratorium on recruitment. If the health service is to work properly, this must moratorium be lifted. We are paying out more to employ staff from agencies than would be the case if they were recruited directly into the health service. The employment of agency staff has led to the development of a kind of stop-gap service and a lack of continuity of care in respect of patients. The second negative aspect my friends and I identified was the position with regard to step-down beds. We must increase the number of the latter and improve the facilities in which they are located.

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