Unanswerable case to immediately bring all healthcare permanently under public control, says People Before Profit
Covid 19 emergency shows beyond doubt that a fragmented, under-resourced semi privatised health system now completely unsustainable
In a statement Richard Boyd Barrett, TD for People Before Profit, has said the Covid 19 emergency and the likelihood that its impact would continue for a long period created “an unanswerable case for immediately and permanently bringing all healthcare provision, including nursing home provision, into an integrated, properly resourced health system, fully under public control.”
He said the coronavirus emergency had demonstrated “beyond doubt, in terms of ICU capacity, staffing levels, nursing home care, testing capacity, that a two tier, semi privatised and fragmented healthcare system of the sort we currently have, is completely unfit for purpose.”
Deputy Boyd Barrett pointed to the tragic situation now unfolding in nursing homes, which he said represented ” a disastrous failure in planning – a failure which was clearly exacerbated by the fragmented, semi privatised and under resourced character of the sector and its lack of proper integration into the wider health service.”
Richard Boyd Barrett said: “The Covid 19 emergency shines a damning light on the dysfunctional, fragmented character of our health service. Faced with an emergency of this sort we see in the starkest terms, how a disjointed and semi privatised system of health care is incompatible with the sort of integrated planning across multiple areas that you need to respond effectively to a threat of this scale.
“The debacle of private consultants bargaining over contracts with the government, the difficulties in getting testing up to the required level and most of all the lack of planning in a fragmented, semi privatised nursing home sector, all point towards the urgent need for a single-tier public health system that is planned and resourced in a consistent and integrated manner.”
