Dr. Marita O'Brien:

Equity is not based on age alone. The medical card review group found that one could not prioritise illnesses either. Chronic disease management could be the place to start or it could be a matter of starting at the level of the smaller services and interventions. Start to do the small stuff first, which should give results that facilitate the implementation of bigger things. That is what they found in the UK anyway. There was a 30% or 40% fall in bed days just by introducing small interventions. I am not sure what funding was distributed nationally, but the savings were quite good.