Health service reform advocated

The ardfheis called for reform of the health services to favour those unable to pay for treatment.

Delegates adopted a motion from Boyle, Co Roscommon, advocating a policy "to abolish the two-tier health system where those who can pay have an advantage". Dr Greg Kelly (Roscommon) said there were serious shortcomings in the health services. "There are long waiting lists and an inequality of access to the service." Mr Gary Keegan (Dublin South East) said that those with private insurance had an advantage.

The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, said that, in the past, health care in Ireland had suffered too much from short-termism.

"Fianna Fβil is not going to go there. Fianna Fβil is not going to behave towards health care like a bad wallpaperer flattening down the bubble here and worrying later about where the bubble will appear next." Health care must be approached in a radically new way. "It has to be an ambitious, standards-driven way, a way that majors on equality, that focuses, first and last and always, on the patient. It must respect age, bring out the best in professionals and set out to match the best in the world.

"But let us be very clear. Getting to that kind of health service is not something we can do by the end of next week, or next month." Mr Martin said the upcoming national health strategy was not to be a short-term bunch of promises.

The strategy "stresses the importance of health and health promotion, as opposed to illness and the care of the sick. In every area, it promotes better standards, more streamlining and liaison between disciplines." It was daft to suggest the Government failed to see there were problems.

"The Minister for Health is not the general manager of every hospital in this country. We have put health boards in place to separate the policy-making from the executive function. The Minister for Health cannot tell every consultant how to do their job. There is such a thing as clinical autonomy."