'Privatisation damaging health service'

THE creeping trend of privatisation is causing irreparable damage to the Irish health service, it was claimed yesterday.

Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary David Begg said the country was at a crossroads.

He added that a new study of the Irish health system sets out a clear agenda for reform and points out the correct direction ahead.

The Health Report: An Agenda for Irish Health Care Reform provides a fresh analysis of the problems and 80 recommendations for reform and change, according to Mr Begg.

The study suggests that hospital consultants and GPs should be paid a basic salary and a fee for treating all patients, public and private, so private patients are not favoured.

It also claims more hospital beds should be provided and more money should be spent on the sector.

"This important new study was commissioned by Congress with two aims: firstly, to inform public debate and policy formation on this crucial issue; secondly, to help create what the people of this country deserve - a well-resourced, first-class health care system," Mr Begg said.

"We firmly believe that the starting point for any reform or change must be that care is provided on the basis of need. This is necessary if we are to ensure equity in our health service - an equity that is currently absent, as the report's findings show.

"One of the most disturbing trends uncovered by the report is that of privatisation of our health service, a privatisation that is occurring almost by stealth. This insidious trend is built on a myth - that it will cost the taxpayer nothing and will deliver extra capacity for the health service. This new study comprehensively demolishes that myth," he said.

"If this trend is allowed to continue unchecked it will irreparably damage our health service. We are at a crossroads, we need to be clear about what direction we want to go in," warned Mr Begg.

Some of the key recommendations in the report urge the Government and health service bosses to:

* Provide access to care on the basis of need.

* Modernise and invest in primary care.

* Stop the privatisation of the health service.

* Expand acute and long-stay capacity.

* Secure care for the aged.