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To: Minister for Health Simon Harris
Keep Ireland's Health System in Public Ownership after COVID-19
In the face of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic Ireland's health system became single-tiered overnight.
We call on the Minister for Health, Simon Harris, to keep the newly attainted 2,000 hospital beds, 9 labs and countless healthcare professionals in public ownership, for the common good.
Minister Harris stated that “there can be no room for public versus private” when responding to the COVID-19 crisis.
The reality is we have had an existing healthcare crisis before COVID-19, one that defined the 2020 election, with health being the largest concern of exit poll respondents. (1)
If a single-tiered, Sláintecare system, is our agreed destination why go backwards?
Why is this important?
Following the 2017 Dáil committee, on the future on Health in Ireland, it was agreed by all parties that a single-tiered healthcare system, called Sláintecare, was the best way forward. (2)
Fine Gael agreed to implement this but dragged their feet, lacking the commitment to fully fund the programme and not making it a priority. (3)
Now, in the face of a global pandemic it is evident that Sláintecare is necessary to protect and care for the people of Ireland.
2) (https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/committees/32/future-of-healthcare/)