Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank Professor Pollock for her stimulating presentation. I will ask a few quick questions. I was very taken by Professor Pollock's answer to my colleague's question about private health insurance. If we were to pursue a certain strategy and take a certain legislative route to provide for universal health care, would she recommend that we should work towards the Canadian model of ensuring no private health insurance is available? I have to say it is a very interesting theory. Speaking of theories, we are all familiar with the work of the NHS since its inception in the 1946 to 1948 period. There was a change in policy in the early 1990s with Thatcherism, etc. Has a lack of consistency in political thought under various Governments in the UK had a negative effect on how the NHS has been working in recent years? I refer also to the changes in the internal market, etc. Professor Pollock spoke in detail about primary health care and particularly the model that is adopted in Scotland, as opposed to Wales and England. Can she get into the details of the differences between what is done in Scotland and the rest of the UK? What does the NHS do so successfully to maintain staff in its system? This is a topical issue in Ireland because staff retention is a particular problem here.