Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I plead with the Minister to look at the system; he has put down markers that he intends to do so. We were promised by the previous Government, the leading parliamentary party off which I was a member for a good while, that the HSE would be disbanded.

We were promised that by the Minister's predecessor. I am not here to attack HSE officials but to look for some semblance of normality, accountability and understanding. I will welcome this Bill if it stops waste that is clearly occurring and insurance companies that have run amok. I know insurance companies have to be viable and cannot operate at a loss, but the rates charged by them are staggering.

I was a patient in a hospital in Cork a good many years ago and I could not believe the charges. I had to travel a distance the equivalent of from here to O'Connell Bridge or a little further and I could have walked it in the morning because I was fine but I was sent by ambulance. I could not have walked back because I had an anaesthetic but when I got my bill the morning I was leaving, which was ten days later, I nearly collapsed. That was 16 or 18 years ago, and I was charged £500 at the time for the trip. I shudder to think what a private ambulance would cost today. There is too much fat in the system in terms of charges. Someone must watch what is going on.

Another area of private health care relates to institutions. I salute the Brothers of Charity and other organisations that are providing much-needed services but in terms of their costs, one organisation is getting €860 million from the HSE. That is a huge amount of money. I have one sad case involving people who are very unhappy with the service. There must be accountability.

Regarding nursing care, qualified persons must be involved. We cannot have care people who do not have any qualifications. People who are sick need help, and that aspect must be challenged.

The people interested in the common good are depending on the Minister. The comic, Mr. Callan, might praise the Minister, and perhaps slag him, at weekends about his future roles in this or any other Government. I am up for that but I support the Minister being allowed to do his job. I will support him where common sense prevails and the common good is served. However, I will not support him when I see waste and there is a great deal of waste in this industry, and a great deal of over-charging. Costs are exorbitant. People must watch that. I know these issues are raised in the Committee of Public Accounts and other areas but they must be monitored on a daily basis.

I support what Deputy Fitzmaurice said about trying to put creative and innovative systems in place. We need change. Everything is back to the old system of not being able to do this or that. There are too many layers in terms of the people in the sector. We need a shake-up. Private people should be brought into this industry. I am not knocking all public officials but it must be run in a businesslike and compassionate manner. A fine balance must be struck between a business manner and a compassionate manner, but I see no sense in paying €1,000 a night for a bed when one can get seven days care in a nursing home in my county for €750. I have spoken to the hospital manager in South Tipperary General Hospital, which I prefer to call St. Joseph's, and it has offers from nursing homes to take people for less than that amount and we will lose out in terms of nursing home places because nursing homes will not be vibrant. They cannot remain viable when operating at half scale. They are a private business and they must break even. They have staff wages, insurance and all the other costs to pay, including oil for heating and maintenance, GPs and so on. If the bed-blockers and the capping system is not lifted, an issue which the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, addressed in a Topical Issue debate with me, it will put huge pressure on the system.

I appeal to the Minister on the issue of medical cards. In the name of God and in the interests of common sense and common good, I ask him to desist from charging people who need a medical card. It is making them sicker and stressed and is also making their loved ones stressed. They have paid their way. They have no problem paying a doctor and would not go anywhere without the few bob in their handbag or pocket to pay their way. That is the kind of people they are. They is the way they were born, reared, bred and lived. They have lived frugally. For them to be asked for such charges puts them under pressure and it also puts hospital management and accountancy staff, who must be subject to audit, under enormous pressure.

I will support the aspects of this Bill that I find good and I look forward to the Minister's reply.

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