Rose Conway-Walsh urges permanent all-Island health budget
Rose Conway-Walsh called for an all-Island approach to healthcare in a speech to the committee on the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, arguing it would save lives and improve outcomes for the island's 7 million residents. She urged the minister and the minister for health to set aside a permanent allocation in the health budget for North-South collaboration to deliver care across jurisdictions.
Committee address and recommendations
Rose Conway-Walsh highlighted contributions from the All-Island Cancer Research Institute and the All-Island Congenital Heart Disease Network to the committee. She argued that optimal healthcare for the 7 million people living on the island requires an all-Island approach and that lives can be saved only when services operate across the island.
Budgetary ask to ministers
She requested that the minister and the minister for health set aside a permanent allocation in the health budget to deliver health care on an all-Island basis. The funding proposal is framed as a means to improve patient outcomes in both jurisdictions and to maximise existing clinical expertise.
Examples of cross-border initiatives
Conway-Walsh cited existing North-South collaboration, including agreements for children's heart procedures to be done in Crumlin and a Cancer Centre at Negellven funded significantly by the Republic. She referenced work on primary care, combining hospital resources, and a point made by Deputy McGreen about two hospitals such as Daisy Hill as examples of where more cross-border coordination could occur.
Implications and next steps
She acknowledged that two separate systems operate until a future referendum on Irish unity would allow design of a new all-Island service, but urged practical steps now. Conway-Walsh said cross-border initiatives have been pursued through various programmes and that efforts will continue in the SRI and ESC to expand all-Island healthcare collaboration.
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At last week's session of the committee of the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, we had a profound contribution from the All-Island Cancer Research Institute and the All-Island Congenial Heart Disease Network. It highlighted once again what we have known for some time, that lives can be saved and health care can only be delivered to an optimum level across the island when we have an all-Island approach to health care for the 7 million people living on the island. On a small island such as ours, it makes zero sense financially or otherwise to have two health care systems operating simultaneously, until such time as we have a referendum on Irish unity and we have an opportunity to design a new and modern all-Island world-class service. I am asking you, Minister and the Minister for Health, to set aside a permanent allocation in the health budget for the delivery of health care on an all-Island basis, utilising North-South collaboration to improve outcomes for patients in both jurisdictions and to maximise the wonderful, wonderful clinical expertise we have on the island. On Deputy Rose Conway-Walch, on the Cancer Consortium, I had set that up originally. We are supporting it. On Congenital Heart Disease, there was a very good agreement under the good trade across-border health initiatives around children's hearts being done in Crumlin, for example. And I think there is more we can do. At Negellven, there is a Cancer Centre there, I don't know if you have seen that, which was funded a lot by us in the Republic and also other services. So absolutely, all for that, and again, some of the research we are doing, can we do primary care services better, North and South, can we combine hospital resources, I mean, Deputy McGreen made a point to me about two hospitals, I think it's Daisy Hill or whatever, you could do stuff more. And we have been at that and through various initiatives, so I am all for that, and I think we will continue to do that in the SRI and ESC as well.
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