reason. No doubt his doctor would have explained the need for a drastic change in diet and lifestyle after the first bypass, but this was clearly ignored by the patient making a conscious choice to stay as he was and become a burden to himself and everyone around him. It is estimated that such cases, were the treatment is preventable, cost the Irish health service in excess of € 4 billion a year.
That’s a lot of money, accounting for some 40% of the total annual Government spending on health in this Country, resulting in thousands of patients with non-preventable illnesses suffering due to lack of available resources. We all read about it – the cases of the elderly being left on trollies and patients even dying due to lack of theatre availability, waiting lists and more. Just think that a reduction in 50% of the preventable cases like the example above would result in three thousand new beds being available, together with the associated hospitals and medical services to cater for these additional patients. However, we constantly hear opposition parties going on about the lack of spending by Government on healthcare as a main cause of the shortage of beds and the crisis in the health service. This is a fallacy. A report by the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) stated that over 3,500 hospital beds have been removed from our service since 1980. Ireland now ranks 27th in OECD countries in terms of the number of hospital beds per thousand of the population. The reality is that throwing money at the health service will not solve the problem.
There has been a 125% increase in health care spending since 1997, but it is widely acknowledged by the general public, doctors and nurses that services have not significantly improved. On average, every taxpayer pays around €6,800 per annum for the health service and most people are angry at seeing their money being squandered. So what’s the answer you might ask? Lets firstly look at some more facts… Did you know that only 3% of the healthcare budget is spent on preventative measures such as educating people on eating healthier, exercising more and stopping smoking. Did you also know that the Government rakes in over €1.1 billion from tobacco sales in Ireland. Furthermore, it is estimated that over 10% of the annual health budget, equating to over €1 billion is being wasted due to too many health quango’s, committees and management staff, lack of proper systems, failed I.T. and management in the health service. Most people would agree that this money would be better spent by giving nurses better pay and conditions, funding more beds, support staff and doctors. It seems that the Government itself has its own staffing and management problems - a 2001 Deloitte & Touche Report on the health system, commissioned by the Government, found that the “Department of Health had little or no personnel with experience in financial, statistical or social analysis, strategic planning, health economics or people with direct experience in the health service”. A rather damning finding to say the least, so one might question the calibre of people running our health service and it is little surprise that things aren’t going well. What this all boils down to is that successive Governments have got it totally wrong. Simple and common-sense actions need to be taken at local and national level. As a first step, parents need to be educated and made responsible for the alarming trend in children moving towards obesity caused by eating the wrong foods, too much television, computer games drinking and lack of exercise. It is shocking that between 1990 and 2000, the number of obese people aged 16 - 24 has more than tripled, rising from 3% to 10%. Obese people die an average of seven years younger.
They are three times more likely to develop diabetes, three times more likely to have a heart attack and three times more likely to have a stroke. Again, this is a time-bomb, just like the example of the patient at the start of this article – refusing to change their lives yet quite happy that others suffer as a result of their selfish behaviour. It seems that globally, something is needed urgently to penalise people for not looking after themselves, irrespective of their Human Rights in being allowed to live as they wish to at any cost, perhaps by heavy taxes on fizzy drinks, tobacco, alchohol and fast foods to curb their irresponsible behaviour and lifestyle – or is this too far fetched? Government would be wise to fund national Health Club membership and dramatically increase spending on preventative measures, advertising and better health education. At the same time, I would call for immediate action to stop the huge wastages, divert some tobacco revenue straight back into health initiatives and address the serious issue of staffing and management as highlighted above. Maybe things will change if common sense prevails.
Jas Kalsi, BSc(Eng)Hons, MBA is a Management Consultant and Past President of the Ennis Chamber of Commerce |
