Short-term health spending could cost more: IMO

SHORT-TERM health spending cuts could end up costing the State more in the long-term, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has warned.

IMO president Dr John Morris said health spending had to rise rapidly during the Celtic Tiger era to even begin to undo damage done by decades of under spending and cutbacks.

The doctors’ representative group also warned that the Government’s lack of consultation with the medical profession would only disadvantage patients.

“In these tough financial times we have to remain focused on protecting the vital basics of our health services to the greatest extent possible,” he said.

Dr Morris claimed a wall of silence had been put up by the Department of Health and Children and the Health Service Executive (HSE) between front-line health workers over the last 12 months.

“Any cuts in funding for any healthcare programmes are going to have an immediate and pretty dramatic impact on the actual delivery of those programmes,” he pointed out.

The IMO said it was opposed to the 50c prescription charge for medical card holders, describing it as a retrograde step that would have a negative health impact.

Incoming IMO president Prof Sean Tierney said it was a tax on being ill and would hit the most vulnerable groups.

Prof Tierney was speaking in advance of the IMO’s conference that will be held in Co Kerry next month.

One of the motions to be discussed is for the HSE to urgently introduce quality controls for home care services for people with a disability and for the elderly.

The IMO’s public health doctor leader Dr Paula Gilvarry said the need for good quality home care would increase with pressure on acute hospital beds.

Dr Michael Mehigan claimed the IMO got a verbal undertaking from the HSE on Tuesday to postpone the full roll-out of a new centralised system for medical card services, due to take place next month, because of ongoing processing problems.

Trade union IMPACT rejected a HSE claim made at this week’s meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children that its members were contributing to a backlog of unprocessed medical card renewals and applications for the over 70s.

A HSE spokesperson confirmed yesterday that the centralisation programme was going ahead as planned. She said the authority was seeking to meet with representative groups, including the IMO, who had raised concerns during the meeting.