Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not providing an umbrella of statistics. There is a fundamental issue here. The statistical data from the OECD shows that Ireland now has second-highest rate of practising nurses per 1,000 of population, among reported EU countries. However, let us put all that to one side. There is no doubt that health expenditure has increased exponentially. Yes, the population has grown as well and there is pressure on hospitals. I accept that. There are organisational and reform issues that we have to look at as well. We are more or less increasing health expenditure every year by €1.5 billion. We have to evaluate that spending. There has been a tremendous increase in life span over the past 20 years. There has been fantastic work done on cancer, cardiology, stroke treatment - where outcomes and survival rates have really improved. Equally, we have to look at some of the outcomes in terms of numbers of people treated and so on over the last number of years and the correlation of that with the inputs. This is a legitimate issue that we should put on the table. By this I am not referring to the people on the ground. HR management in the HSE needs to be looked at. A concern I have is that work has been delegated to regional executives in terms of the prioritisation of resources but that could lead to a post-code-lottery type of situation, which is something we must avoid.

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