The Government must respond to the overwhelming public demand for change in the health services, Ms Liz McManus has said.
The Labour Party spokeswoman on health said the ESRI survey which showed 95 per cent of the public favoured higher spending on health services and on reducing waiting lists could not be ignored.
Public opinion of the health services should set off alarm bells in Government and force the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, to listen, she said. Some 60 per cent of those questioned regarded the health services as being "bad", "very bad" or merely "adequate" and, she said, this was a clear expression of public distress at their rundown state. Ten per cent of the public also believed those with private insurance would receive treatment before public patients.
"The Labour Party has seized the initiative on this issue. In our discussion document, Curing Our Ills, we have promised to wipe out health apartheid when in government. By introducing free GP care for all and universal health insurance, we will abolish the inequalities between public and private care," she said.
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, has been accused by Mr Gay Mitchell of Fine Gael of extending "apartheid" to primary healthcare provided by GPs.
The Fine Gael spokesman on health said the Minister had "ignored the needs of the poor when he extended the medical card system to retired bank managers and business executives and all of those over-70".
While people on £101 per week did not qualify for medical cards, the Minister had taken this "outrageous" decision and agreed to pay GPs £365 for each new 70-year-old patient, Mr Mitchell said. The previous fee for a 70-year-old patient was £70 and as low as £30 for a young person.
Fine Gael, he said, was committed to doubling medical card income limits so 40 per cent of the population would be covered, compared to 30 per cent at present.