Seanad debates

Thursday, 27 October 2011

Health Services: Statements, Questions and Answers

 

1:00 pm

Photo of David CullinaneDavid Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

Does the Minister accept that we have a two-tier health service and that health care may depend on ability to pay rather than on need? Does he support universal health care provision? What steps will he take to put in place a more egalitarian health service?

I welcome the Minister's support for the abolition of the HSE. Will he take on board the Sinn Féin proposal of replacing the HSE with community health partnerships which would be made up in equal thirds of locally elected representatives, advocate groups that campaign on behalf of patients and State bodies? What is the Minister's position on the public service embargo and the impact it is having on health services? Rather than driving down costs in hospitals, hospitals are forced to take on agency staff. We have seen this in Waterford, in the community care hospital in Dungarvan and in St. Patrick's Hospital, where services may be curtailed because of the use of agency staff. Rather than reducing costs the public service embargo has increased them. What measures will the Minister take to address that situation? I advise him to ease the embargo in the health service to enable hospitals to budget their departmental funding in a better way.

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