Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 24 October 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Overspend on the Health Budget 2018: Discussion

9:00 am

Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

Over time potentially it will. The model of care we have today is the model of care, broadly speaking and given some adjustments, we will have in 14 months' time. It is the cost of that model of care that is the issue in any year. We will also then do longer-term planning such as through the Sláintecare process to say we want a completely different model of care. We will not turn around the model of care in 14 months. While people living healthier lifestyles is absolutely the way to go, what we are faced with is treating the people who are in front of us now or who want to be in front of us now. In 14 months' time, broadly the same model of care, albeit with some adjustments, will be what is costing in that period.