Harney is pushing people into private care

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney was accused yesterday of making people more afraid of using the public hospital system so that they would take out private health insurance.

The charge was made by consultant neurologist, Dr Colin Doherty, who said there was a growing fear that Ms Harney was not going to improve the public health system — that it was going to deteriorate.

“You need to create more fear to make people pay those extra premiums to keep the level of private health take-up at 50%,” said Dr Doherty on RTÉ radio.