Failure to ensure adequate healthcare across disadvantaged communities is resulting in worsening health outcomes
Failure to ensure adequate healthcare across disadvantaged communities is resulting in worsening health outcomes - The Labour Party
- Wake up call to Department of Heath to take action to ensure proper GP and community health care is provided across every community.
- Report shows up the madness of the Department of Health’s moves to introduce a new Population Based Resource Allocation Model of funding the health service and exclude primary care from that model.
- Report authors should be invited to health committee.
Responding to data from the ESRI, Labour’s health spokesperson Marie Sherlock TD said the failure to properly address the distribution of primary health care is negatively impacting those living in more deprived areas.
Deputy Sherlock said:
“Investment in our primary care system is desperately needed to address the huge gaps that exist in health outcomes in the Ireland of 2025.
“The ESRI’s data highlights how health inequalities have been exacerbated post-Covid. Half a decade on from the crisis of the pandemic, we must see a shift in how we approach the provision of care.
“I would welcome the opportunity to delve into the data with the authors of the report through the Oireachtas health committee. The nature of the two-tier health service in Ireland must be addressed with the support of all members of the Oireachtas.
“Unfortunately, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail continue to baulk at their previous commitments to expand free GP care and we are seeing the effects of major under-investment in community healthcare with a large shortage of PHN’s across the country.
“We know that a quarter of the population delay GP visits due to costs, with the RCSI publishing research in March of this year showing that those with chronic conditions forego parts of a basic acceptable standard, or part of the medication, due to the high costs.
“Despite being one of the richest countries in Europe, Ireland is the only European country without universal coverage of primary healthcare. It doesn’t have to be this way.”