Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We do not know enough for the Minister to say with any confidence that the NTPF will have anything other than a very short-term effect of temporarily massaging the figures. I do not think it will have any real impact. I do not think the Minister does either. Regarding the follow-up that goes with the NTPF and the purchase of private health care, we are having an ideological debate here and I am not shy about saying it. The Minister is wedded to the notion of privatising our health service and I have been elected to try to stop it. When a person is treated in the private sector under the NTPF, the Department pays for the treatment, after which the patient is discharged and goes home. If the patient needs any follow-up care, such as physiotherapy - there is precious little of that and the patient may go onto another waiting list for it, God help them - how is it done? There is no joined-up thinking between the outsourcing and the public service. Will the Minister address it?

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