Increase health budget to meet needs, say doctors

A doctors’ group has called for the health budget to be overhauled to avoid a further deterioration of public health services.

President of the Irish Medical Organisation, Dr Ann Hogan, said doctors, and other medical professionals, doubted the capacity of the traditional budgetary process to deal with the scale of mounting challenges.

The cumulative impact of almost a decade of austerity in the health service, a growing and ageing population, and too few doctors, was a “potentially devastating” situation, said Dr Hogan.