Healthcare spend is little more than 1980

I’M fed up of the Fianna Fáil and PD coalition telling us they are spending more money on healthcare than ever before. They suggest time and again that funding for statutory healthcare has increased by €€5 billion since they came to power.

The reality is rather more shocking and an indictment of how our healthcare system has been mismanaged over the 25 years.

The fact is that, in real terms, we are spending on healthcare an amount similar to 1980. Then, we spent 7.72% of GNP on healthcare and this year it is estimated that we will spend 7.82%.

Of course the FF/PD coalition wouldn’t dare to present the figures to the electorate in this way.

We still languish on the lower end of the scale for health and social expenditure in the EU. Our spend on pre-school education is among the lowest internationally.

We need more targeted expenditure on education, health and social care. Let the reforms begin with a new brush and let’s see tangible changes in the quality of all these services.

Paul Horan,

Lecturer in Nursing Studies(Intellectual Disabilities),

School of Nursing & Midwifery Studies,

Trinity Centre for Health Sciences,

St James’s Hospital,

Dublin 8.