Free GP visits a ‘Labour health bribe’ - McDowell

The President of the Progressive Democrats, Mr Michael McDowell, has today dismissed a Labour Party promise of free doctors’ visits for all as an "election bribe" and a "crazy", "loony left" idea.

"This policy flies in the face of reason and common sense. It would, in addition, be doomed to failure," said Mr McDowell.

He also said that what he called the "disastrous" British NHS experience shows that a universal free GP service simply does not work. "The predictable result for millions of patients in the UK has been the introduction of appointment waiting lists to see GPs. This gives an entirely new meaning to the term ‘patient’," said Mr McDowell.

He went on to say that Irish GPs are not willing to become salaried employees of Health Boards, that a ‘fee per item’ or ‘fee per visit’ approach to GP patient care has been tried in Ireland and found to be "wasteful and horrendously expensive".

"In short, the Labour election bribe would wreck the GP service and put back any hope of badly needed restructuring of primary health-care at GP level as envisaged in the National Health Strategy.

"The proposal would be opposed by the great majority of GPs and by the great majority of patients as soon as they saw the inevitable consequences.," said Mr McDowell.

The PD President also said that a Labour proposal to use the National Pension Reserve Fund to help build hospitals was "equally foolish".

"If Labour wants to go on a borrowing spree, so be it. But destroying the pension Fund of future pensioners is simply madness," he said.