This article is from page 20 of the 2011-02-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
THE MAN who oversaw the establishment of the HSE admitted that reform of the administrative area of the organisation was needed.
The former Minister for Health Michéal Martin made his comments while beginning the first leg of the Fianna Fáil election campaign in Clare on Wednesday.
“I felt on the administrative side it could have been stronger at the beginning in terms of how it was structured, and I think reform can be undertaken there; but what I would caution against is any dismantling of the structure. The last thing the health service needs is another big overhaul of structures. In terms of the Fine Gael proposal I think they are very dangerous in terms of health and outcomes,” he said.
The Fianna Fáil leader was adamant that progress had been made in health in the last number of years, but more work needed to be done.
Deputy Martin was also asked to defend the failure of the € 39 million expansion to Ennis General Hospital, which was promised by his predecessor Bertie Ahern (FF) prior to the 2007 General Election, to materialise.
He also faced strong opposition to proposed plans to remove cardiac service from the Clare County Hospital. Deputy Martin attempted to defended previous promises by saying that all political parties made predictions in 2007 in terms of predicted growth of the economy.
He said that the change in that growth lead to change in policy – policy which he attributed to the HSE.
He said that since 2005 a number of people working in the HSE in Clare had increased and that the biggest killers in Ireland – heart disease and cancer – were being tackled.
The Fianna Fáil leader was well aware that the “hospital issue” was not going to go away anytime soon.
“For 45 years for 50 years if you go to Roscommon if you go to Nenagh if you go to Ennis there will always be an issue around the hospital,” he said.
“Where ever you have hospitals that are doing good work like Ennis you are going to have debate about it. You are going to have genuine positions adopted by different people on different sides of that debate and I think that is natural and that is something to be welcomed. This is an issue in this election and I guarantee you it will be an issue again in the next election.”
He claimed the Government put a lot of investment into hospitals and other infrastructure making the required health services more accessible to patients.
“We can now get from A to B anywhere in the country including this part of the country much faster than we could three years ago. That is significant in how you configure your health service and it should be borne in mind,” he said.
“Health is complex. We have to pull together in my view the critical mass of professional people and sufficient volume of patients to make sure we get best hospitals.
“I believe in that. I am not going to pretend to people that I don’t. I am not going to be dishonest with people and say we can do everything on every hospital site. There has been a bit of dishonesty on that debate along the way.”