Just one in three women have faith in health service

Rural dwellers are split as to whether they still have faith in the health service, with 46% claiming they do and 40% saying they do not.

Recent years have seen headlines in relation to a fall in the number of rural GPs, record numbers of people waiting on trolleys in emergency departments, and a continued focus on what services are and are not available to those living outside large urban areas.

The Irish Examiner/ICMSA opinion poll finds while more respondents do still have faith in the health service, more people strongly disagree that is the case (21%) than strongly agree (16%).

Just over one third of women polled had faith in the health service, compared with just under half of men, while those without an off-farm income were much more likely than those on a second job to express faith in the health service.

Older respondents were also more likely to express some level of satisfaction with the health services, led by 59% of those over 65, whereas just 35% of those aged under 35 and 33% of the aged 35 to 44 expressed faith in the health system.

An ICMSA spokesman said the question of confidence or otherwise in the health services will by definition be subjective and based on personal experience or the testimony of others.

“But the surprisingly high number of women who did not express confidence might be related to the marked reduction in rural GPs and the necessity of having to travel to and use overcrowded EDs in urban locations. The reduction in rural GPs is of a piece with the reduction in every other type of service that was, until quite recently, available in rural areas.

“Access to medicine now joins access to the gardaí and access to local schools and access to post offices and access to public transport and access to local banks and so many other areas as a feature of rural life that seems to be disappearing in front of our eyes.”