Ireland's relatively high spending on health care is not matched by the level of service
prepares to slip its European moorings, the ties that bind it together are also under strain. In Northern Ireland, which voted to remain, there is often talk that a “hard Brexit” could even build new momentum for a united Ireland. One reason for doubting this, however, can be summed up in a word: health.
The 1.8m people of Northern Ireland enjoy free access to the British taxpayer-funded National Health Service . The Republic of Ireland’s 4.8m residents have to make do with something less appealing. “I know people up north whose life’s ambition is to see a united Ireland, and yet they worry when they see the health service we have down here,” says Louise O’Reilly, anUpgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks.
Junior doctors and nurses battle with long hours, stress and inadequate equipment in overcrowded and dingy old buildings. Many choose to take their training abroad. Meanwhile, a planned new National Children’s Hospital, originally billed at a hefty €650m, has seen its projected cost balloon to €1.73bn. In terms of cost per bed, an estimated €3.7m and climbing, it would be by far the most expensive hospital in the world.
Experts blame much of the dysfunction on poor and piecemeal long-term planning, inadequate budget control and Ireland’s “two tier” public-private health system. In Ireland, unlike in most othercountries, most specialists employed in publicly funded hospitals, already well paid by the state, are allowed to dedicate a portion of their time to private patients. These patients are often in the same public hospital and using publicly provided facilities.
Róisín Shortall, a former junior health minister and joint leader of the centre-left Social Democrat party, notes that many worried families pay for no-frills health insurance , just to be able to skip lengthy queues. “Between 46% and 47% of Irish people are on private health insurance, which is by far the highest rate in Europe,” she says.
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