Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I listened to Deputy Kelleher's contribution last night and thought he almost acknowledged that previous administrations, in which his party was to the fore, made many mistakes in regard to how our health services were arranged. Looking back, we can see that when the economy went into a severe downturn, our health services were poorly positioned to deal with it. No meaningful reform had been carried out. Money was being poured into health services, but there was no great sense of where the money was going.

As far back as 2001, the then Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, felt putting money into the health sector was like putting money into a black hole. In 2004 when Deputy Martin was Minister for Health - I was a Member of the Dáil at the time - his Secretary General appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Health in regard to the Minister's failure to deal with the illegal nursing home charges. The Secretary General stated at the time that the important constantly conspires to push out the urgent in health. I believe this is one of the reasons former Ministers, Micheál Martin and Mary Harney, lost their way in regard to what they were doing with health. They were not quite able to separate what was important from what was urgent in regard to health services. To some degree there was a sense they just gave up on it, despite the fact €1 billion extra was being put into the health service at the time.

The collapse in the economy was a disaster for the health service, because there was no great sense of a policy being followed or no sense that people had the courage to make the right decisions. There has been a turning point in this regard since we came into power. The first turn around came in the ethos of the health services and now we have reached a new turning point where we are in a position to put additional funding into health. It is important we start reinvesting in the health services and that we begin to deal with the core issues where additional funding is required.

It is even more important that we have clear communication in the health area, not just with patients but with all individuals working in the area. In my 20 years in health and as a Member of the Oireachtas, I have seen much frustration and exasperation, not alone among patients but among everybody who works in the health services. Often this has nothing to do with failures in the health services, but with perceived failures and the failure to communicate policy or what is going on. We are getting better in this regard, slowly but surely.

The talks on GP contracts for dealing with children under six are progressing. The majority of GPs have also acknowledged the need for new contracts for medical card patients. We must move away from the acute illness type system to a more chronic care type system in primary care. There is much to be done in the area of primary care, but significant change has taken place already. For example, my practice nurse takes bloods, does vaccinations and smear tests etc, jobs that were done by GPs just seven or eight years ago. The system is changing. IT is changing also. One of the biggest problems in regard to IT is that the hospital sector is not moving at the same rate as the primary care sector, which would help maximise IT efficiencies.

We are going to see more changes for the greater benefit of patients. I offer my full support to the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, because he has got the concept, and separates what is important and deals with what is urgent in a clear and precise manner. Although there are problems with our current medical card system, these are not insurmountable. All of the issues that have arisen can be dealt with. It is an issue of communicating what we are doing to the people most affected - the patients - and of providing a clear system that works well for those who provide the service to patients - the GPs. I note from my communication with GPs across the country that their main concern is about how the Government communicates with them rather than how the system operates. We need to progress further in this regard in the coming weeks.

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