The public had to realise there would be a financial cost in overhauling the health services, the annual conference of the Irish Medical Organisation was told yesterday.
Dr Cormac Macnamara, former president of the IMO, said people appeared to be in denial about the cost of improvements. "You cannot have additional skills, equipment, personnel, without additional expenditure. The public must be educated and prepared for that."
In the next 25 years, he said, there would be considerably more middle-aged and elderly people and fewer young people. "At times, however, we appear to be in a national state of denial on this issue and there is little evidence that anyone is really planning for the new millennium in this regard."
Already, he said, there was a clear determination, across all levels of society, to resist increased taxation as a means of funding pensions or healthcare. "Is it anymore likely that tomorrow's young people will be more enthusiastic in this regard?
"Almost certainly not. Unless as a society we honestly address this issue in the immediate future we will inevitably be faced with an appalling crisis in the years ahead," said Dr Macnamara, speaking during the first scientific session of the conference, "Cash versus Care".
Meanwhile the medical director of the VHI, Dr Bernadette Carr, said the future of Irish healthcare was pointing towards more care and less cash, and the challenge was to bridge that gap in the best interests of the patient.
Dr Carr said the subject of cash versus care represented one of the fundamental conundrums which underlay healthcare systems throughout the world today.
"This is that while there is a never-ending demand for additional healthcare, the funds to support such demands are clearly not inexhaustible," she said.