Sir, – Another budget comes and goes with scarcely a mention of universal healthcare, one of the great unresolved policy issues in Irish democracy.
If my sums are right, 2026 will be the 10th year since publication of the Sláintecare report, which was envisioned to be a 10-year transformative roadmap to achieve universal healthcare in Ireland.
A universal healthcare system is one in which everybody is guaranteed access to the care they require without regard to their ability to pay. It is premised on a conception of healthcare as a human right.
It arose in most western societies from the wreckage of the second World War, but never here.
RM Block
Specifically, more than half our population pays, in full and out of pocket, to see a GP. There is no other country in Europe where that happens.
Waiting lists for surgeries, scans, disability assessments remain scandalously long.
This should never be seen as normal. Meanwhile, our public health system and private medical sector continue to overlap in a way that is inefficient, unfair and outdated.
Nine years ago, we confidently assured ourselves that all this would be sorted within the decade. Some progress was achieved – such as the new consultant contract – but key deliverables were not. The architecture of the system remains largely unchanged.
History tells us that universal healthcare only happens when certain key ingredients are present. One of these is a broad-based civic coalition made up of people who declare health to be a right of all.
We lack this. Then and only then will the politicians follow. – Yours, etc,
DR DOMHNALL McGLACKEN-BYRNE,
Chair, Doctors For Universal Healthcare,
Dublin.
