Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. When first I came to the House the statistics documents used to be circulated. May I suggest that this statistics document should be circulated to Members because it contains a great deal of good news in spite of the statements that have been made earlier. Let us take the example of statistics for 2013. In 2011 the share of gross national income spent on the health service was 11%, that is more than the share spent in Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and the United Kingdom and is the same as Germany. During the period of the recession, for four of the years covered in the staffing data from 2004-13, 19.5% more staff were employed in medical and dental services and 22.4% more health care and social care professional staff were employed. The number of consultants increased in the period 2004-13 to 34.6%. The number of doctors as a whole increased by 23.2%. We start our dialogue by referring to the situation as "Angola" but that is not borne out by the numbers. Even in a recession we have recruited more consultants and doctors. We started out with a higher cash expenditure in 2009 on the health service than most of the countries I have mentioned, still as a proportion of gross national income at 11%, it is not bad and the only country with an outstandingly greater level of expenditure is the United States. Many people are not sure that is the model one would wish to follow.

I think sometimes the employees of the health service have bad-mouthed their own service and caused panic among the public. I think that is wrong. We have had recruitment. We do not underspend. Even in the period when the bankers cleaned out the country we kept the expenditure going. Perhaps we should look at things such as the denigration of trolleys, as if the trolley was a supermarket trolley. As far as I can see it looks like a bed. What is at issue is whether it should be in an accident and emergency department or should be moved upstairs. I hope the hospitals' management will come to grips with this issue.

We have the issue of the deskilling of GPs. I recall a programme on Ulster Television showing a doctor in Armagh who spent most of his time on the phone, not like the Minister who had been training for seven years in a medical school. Have we deskilled GPs? We put that proposition to his predecessor, the then Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, who felt it happened in Dublin, in particular, those who are in the catchment areas of hospitals. It is easier to refer people to an accident and emergency department than to deal with them in the doctor's surgery, as the Minister described in his radio interview on Sunday.

There is no doubt that we pay far too much for pharmaceuticals. Mr. Pat Kenny would be one of the strongest advocates for linking up with the Spanish when buying pharmaceuticals. Let us send trucks down to Spain to bring back pharmaceuticals at Spanish prices, if we are locked into some high price zone in northern Europe. I agree with the Minister that we must look very strictly at the build up of public pressure for more hospital beds. I think there are other ways to look at the problem. Over a ten-year period up to 2011, we spent €5 billion on capital expenditure, a large part of which was to replace old highly esteemed and cherished hospitals, such as the Adelaide and other hospitals in Dublin. Was this part of the control of Government spending by the construction sector rather than by the health sector?

I think the Minister's ideas on changing the ambulance service from a taxi to a facility that would treat people in their homes or in the vehicle and then leave them at home are innovatory proposals. We should consider proposals not on the premise that we are spending less than other countries either in cash terms or as a percentage of gross national income, because we are not, or that we have been running down the system. We have protected the employment of the health care professionals, doctors and in particular consultants during a period when the Exchequer was empty which does belie the Angola tag. Not that it is not Angola, I hope the Minister will have a rewarding experience and I wish him well in the Department.