John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Turner. Approximately 50% of the population have private health care.

When one adds the numbers of beds in private hospitals and private beds in public hospitals, about 50% of the beds are available to patients with private health care insurance. That percentage of the population are well treated because they have access to a service. It is very obvious that the other 50%, those who do not have private health care insurance, do not have the same access and are, therefore, not receiving the care they need. It is agreed across the board that once a person gets into the hospital system, he or she is well looked after; it is getting access to a hospital bed that is the problem. In his summary Dr. Turner states we need to consider the possibility of public hospitals treating public patients only. I want to focus on that very strong statement. How could we bring it about? Let us strip back the service. We are looking at better primary care and step-down facilities, but let us deal with the hospital issue. It is very obvious that a person who is economically more attractive to a hospital is given priority. That is happening. We have discussed the issue at length. Do we have to re-examine consultants' contracts, the contracts of nursing staff and those of staff at al levels? Is it necessary to have a complete revamp to make a service available? There might be staff in the system who might have a contract that is to run for another 20 years. Unless we tackle and deal with the issue, we will go around in circles. I would like to have more meat put on the bones in expanding on the particular comment made.