John Crown (Independent)

Last week, a paper was published in The Lancet, perhaps the world's most prestigious medical journal, outlining the implications for the citizens of Greece of cutbacks in terms of delivery of and access to their health system. For the first time we saw a real verifiable matrix which showed that this is not some vague aphoristic theoretical worry about what might happen if there are health service cuts at a time of budgetary constraint but what actually happens. It showed alarming declines in the provision of service for a number of conditions and quite alarming increases in areas such as HIV infection and other illnesses. There is a budget coming up in the near future and it is widely predicted that in the clichéd prevailing circumstances we will see some further cuts in the health service. It is already creaking and the potential that another round of cuts will bring real verifiable and life-threatening complications for patients who need the health system is not something which is theoretical; it is very real.

It is distasteful for people to hear endless whingeing and bleating, often from well-paid consultants, about deficiencies in the health service but I want to propose what I believe would be a small partial solution. I ask the Leader if he would bring to the attention of the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Health the possibility, following somewhat similarly the philosophy of the old Irish sweepstake which was originally set up to fund hospital work in Ireland, of a national health service solidarity bond. This bond would be a call to the citizens of this country to get a low-yield, long-term low-interest rate bond guaranteed by the Government, effectively giving to the Government a supply of cheap low-interest credit for a fixed period of time, perhaps ten years. This, however, would have to be ringfenced for the health service. We would have to get a guarantee that it was not being used to pay Mr. Roman Abramovich - I am sorry, I know I am not supposed to mention individuals here-----