Healthcare should be provided insofar as is possible through a public system, the head of the Health Service Executive has said.
Addressing an Irish Nurses Organisation conference yesterday, Prof Brendan Drumm warned that unless the public system began to perform and reform quickly, services would be handed over to the private system, which would claim it could do things more economically.
"The pendulum will leave the public health service . . . and that for me would be disastrous," he said. "I really believe healthcare should be provided in as many facets as possible through the publicly provided system."
His comments come amid plans for increased private-sector involvement in Irish healthcare.
Minister for Health Mary Harney announced plans earlier this year for the construction of private hospitals on public hospital grounds to free up 1,000 private beds in public hospitals over the next five years. There are also plans for several private primary care centres across the State.
Prof Drumm also told delegates some €12.5 billion would be spent on health next year, up from just over €11 billion this year, yet the Republic still did not have a world-class health service. However he believed one could be provided.
He said there was no easy answer on why we did not have a world-class service, given the healthcare investment.
He repeated that suggestions that all the money was going on administrators were wrong. He said there were only about 3,000 people in "backroom administration roles" in the health sector.
He wanted significant investment in community health services and primary care services. It was wrong that people went to A&E for primary care services.