Professor Deirdre Heenan:

You might be waiting. That is a political reality. Perhaps the shared island unit with universities North and South could say they are going to work together. On my more cynical days, I think that even if we came away with saying, “Here are the facts of the system as it sits at the moment”, that would be a step forward. We still hear on a regular basis, “Yes, but we get it free and down there you have to pay for it.” That is the truth of the matter, apparently, but it is not free. We pay tax and national insurance and we are having serious problems with access. Nor is the system in the South perfect. If we could start from a position of saying what the facts are and asking how we can improve outcomes based on these facts, and allow the general public and people who are interested in health and politicians and the wider policymakers to challenge myths or mistruths, we could go straight back and say that is actually not the case and we would have the evidence to show that they are misinformed.