Health service bill - Clever cuts can be made

Health Minister Mary Harney has warned that the scale of the health cuts next year will be unprecedented. She told a conference on health funding that €1.2 billion needs to be cut from the existing €15bn in health spending.

Cuts are necessary, but so much waste has been exposed in the health service, that these cuts can be made without curtailing with frontline services. Illness can’t be postponed and the postponement of treatment inevitably leads to complications.

In other EU countries drugs are sold at a fraction of the price they cost in this country. This is an area in which significant cuts could be achieved with some initiative. The need for savings was obvious last year and again this year, but it seems that nothing is going to be done until next year.