Health service coverage unfair - Harney
Updated: 22:18, Friday, 7 May 2010
Health Minister Mary Harney has told the annual conference of nurses that much that is said about the health service is unfair.
Health Minister Mary Harney has told the annual conference of nurses that much that is said about the health service is unfair.
The minister was speaking at the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation's annual conference in Trim, Co Meath, where she received a cool reception on arrival.
Minister Harney said that the country was going through a painful period, but appealed to nurses to work with the Government for change.
She said the gap between Government income and expenditure was €20bn and the funds for health were finite.
Ms Harney also said that life expectancy in Ireland was now one year ahead of the EU average.
INMO President Sheila Dickson accused the Government of showing a lack of respect and inability to listen to the profession.
She said the INMO could not accept the Health Minister's repeated mantra that the country has too many nurses.
Ms Dickson said the Government had prioritised the needs of the national and international financial community over the needs of ordinary working people.
The road to recovery must be spread out over several years to avoid a deep and long lasting depression, she said.
Ms Dickson said that a single-tiered healthcare system was the only one that should be striven for in a civilised society and that the public system cannot subsidise the private system with tax reliefs when the public system is failing patients.
INMO General Secretary Liam Doran said that the staff recruitment embargo was 'killing quality care' in the health service
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