Service must improve ‘to stop taxpayer drift to private healthcare’

THE drift towards private healthcare will increase if taxpayers do not get the kind of service they are demanding, the head of the Health Service Executive (HSE), Prof Brendan Drumm, warned yesterday.

“If we cannot face the challenge of justifying the money that has already been spent in the system then clearly we are going to be challenged by others coming from the private sector who will inform the taxpayer and Government that they will provide those services at a more economic rate,” he said.

Speaking at a national conference of the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) in the Mullingar Park Hotel, Mullingar, Co Offaly, Prof Drumm said that while he would be arguing for more investment in public health, he wanted the money to be spent in specific areas, particularly at community level.