Bríd Smith demands public ownership of private hospitals
Bríd Smith addressed Ireland's health service, detailing long waiting lists, understaffing and the impact on children and neurological patients. She urged urgent recruitment of neurological nurses and called for the transfer of private hospital capacity into public ownership.
Waiting lists and patient impact
She described the health service as an underfunded shambles held together by overstretched staff and highlighted specific backlogs: 649 children waiting for orthopaedic surgery, 56 children with spina bifida waiting between one and four years, and extensive CAM service delays with reports of inappropriate medication for children. Every statistic, she argued, represents an individual whose life could be transformed by timely treatment.
Neurological care and staffing crisis
She backed the Patients Deserve Better campaign's call for 100 additional neurological nurses to reach the recommended national total of 142. She cited that around 800,000 people live with a neurological condition, nearly 24,000 are on public waiting lists for neurological outpatient care and 8,600 have waited over 18 months. Local shortfalls were detailed - Dublin needs 57 extra nurses, St James's Hospital has 4 but needs 14, and Tala Hospital has 3.5 but needs 20.
Private hospitals and public capacity
She criticised the prominence of private practice in public hospitals and the existence of private hospitals as a drain on public resources, noting that private capacity taken into public control during COVID was handed back afterwards. She pointed to low hospital bed numbers per capita and cited calls from the Irish Hospital Consultants Association for 6,000 additional public beds and 4,500 community step-down and rehab beds, and from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation warning of a return to overcrowding.
Children's and maternity hospital concerns and amendment
She raised concerns that the National Children's Hospital includes more than a dozen private suites and that the National Maternity Hospital was built under private ownership. She moved an amendment from people before profit calling on the Government to take all private hospital capacity and private organisations delivering healthcare and social care into public ownership as part of a single-tier national health service and to remove private practice from public hospitals. She said she would press the amendment through to the end of the day.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
�amedd i Cael gynteg teacht id thair a silwis ohonom for our campaigning? We want to thank Cael faen for bringing this Motion forward. Ireland's health service is an underfunded shambles by design, by design held together by the superhuman efforts of undervalued undepaid health workers, wrestled by themselves. Every aspect of healthcare is beset by large waiting lists and the motion from Sinn Féin sets out the overall numbers very clearly. But we should remind ourselves that every single one of those numbers is somebody who needs care. People on the waiting lists are waiting for treatment that would be life-changing were they to receive it. Some people, such as the 649 children waiting for orthopaedic surgery that have been highlighted recently, are waiting so long that their conditions become inoperable and often they are condemned to live a life unnecessarily blighted by illness and pain. The Spina Bifida Paediatric Advocacy Group have reported 56 children in Ireland waiting between one and four years for orthopaedic surgery to correct the condition that can cause paralysis of the legs, often accompanied by hydrocephalus or water on the brain. We all heard recently of large waiting lists for the CAM service and how understaffing leads to inappropriate medication of children. Earlier today, some of our members attended the Patients Deserve Better campaign and this was launched for additional neurological nurses to deal with what was described at their launch as a critical resource issue. The campaign set out why the government needs to recruit an additional 100 neurological nurses to bring the national number to the recommended 142 nurses needed. Apparently 800,000 people, a shocking high number in Ireland, are living with a neurological condition. That is people with multiple cirrhosis, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy and other less serious conditions. The campaign has outlined today how there are close to 24,000 people on the public waiting lists for neurological outpatient care. 8,600 of them have been waiting for over 18 months. Recruitment of the additional neurological nurses is required in reducing the current waiting lists. According to the Neurological Nurses Alliance, Dublin alone needs 57 extra nurses. For example, St James's Hospital has 4 neurological nurses and it needs 14, a shortfall of 10. Tala Hospital has 3.5 nurses and it needs 20, a shortfall of 17. We fully support the Patients Deserve Better campaign and call on the government to urgently recruit the additional 100 neurological nurses that are needed. Neurological nurses play a crucial clinical role in providing advice, counselling and education support. A speaker at the launch spoke of how one neurological nurse in her hospital is not available for public patients. That brings me to one of our main points, and that is the question of public ownership of our healthcare system. I have read your speech, Minister, and not once did you use the two words Solange Care. It is like it has gone out of the currency into the history books. One of the biggest problems facing our public health service is the existence, in a large way, of private practice in public hospitals and also the very existence of many private hospitals and services. At every turn, public monies are being drained off by private interests. This is central to the dysfunction and lack of resources facing the HSE and the public health system. We saw it very starkly during the height of the COVID crisis, where millions were paid out to take the private hospital capacity into public control, but as soon as we are out of the woods, it is handed right back to them, leaving us short of millions put into a private healthcare system. We have a very low hospital bed number per capita by international standards. The lack of capacity in our public health system is one of the main reasons why we have such enormous waiting lists that are detailed in this motion. The Irish Hospital Consultants Association has called for 6,000 additional public hospital beds and 4,500 community step-down and rehab beds to alleviate pressure on the system. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation recently said that the health service is rapidly returning to the bad old days of overcrowding in every aspect. Those that can afford it avail of private hospitals to access the care they need, while those dependent on the public service continue to join the waiting lists and wait ever longer. I am reminded of the famous Joan Baez song written in the 60s about poor communities in the US where if living were something that money could buy, the rich would live and the poor would die. In this situation I think that often happens, but there is no doubt that poorer people definitely suffer. We believe it is time for private hospitals to be taken into public ownership, to add to the capacity that we urgently need in the public health system. If evidence is needed of a lack of commitment to even grappling with that problem, I think it is in the future of the National Children's Hospital and the proposed National Maternity Hospital. In the case of the National Children's Hospital it has been built with over a dozen private suites, allowing for private medicine to flourish within that hospital. In the case of the National Maternity Hospital it has been built by ownership of a private company. That is why I want to move the amendment people before profit have put that we call on the Government to take all private hospital capacity and private organisations currently delivering healthcare and social care into public ownership as part of a single tier national health service. This, coupled with the removal of private practice from public hospitals, would give us that single tier, entirely public, free, at the point of need, at the core of a new national health service that we so badly need. I want to move that amendment and to the end of the day, I'll finish it to the end of the day and to the end of the day and to the end of the day and to the end of the day. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your time. Thank you.
Thank you for downloading 🙏
If you publish this material on social media, we would be very grateful if you tagged VideoParliament. It helps us reach more people and keep building a transparent archive of Irish politics.
