Truly dire state of our crumbling health system revealed by international survey – TheLiberal.ie – Our News, Your Views

Truly dire state of our crumbling health system revealed by international survey




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A recent survey has revealed that Ireland ranks among the lowest in Europe in terms of proper access to healthcare, patient waiting times, and a raft of other health-related matter.

The survey, which was conducted by private Swedish firm Health Consumer Powerhouse and will certainly make depressing reading for Minister for Health Leo Varadkar and all those who came before him, uses 48 independent indicators, and has revealed that:

  • Waiting times at emergency departments across Irish hospitals are the worst in Europe
  • Waiting times for minor operations and non-invasive procedures such as CT scans rank among the longest of 35 countries surveyed
  • Ireland ranks second worst in Europe for direct access to a specialist, without GP referral
  • We stand fourth last for non-acute operations carried out within 90 days and for the number of cataract operations performed
  • The country ranks lowest for the proportion of non-acute CT scans carried out within a week

Overall, our health system scores 21st in the 2015 Euro Health Consumer Index. Such figure is just up one place from 2014, but way down from 14th in 2013.

Remarkably, lower-income countries such as Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia all rank ahead of Ireland in such index. Netherlands and Switzerland top the list.

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