Dr Hilary Jones - Ireland has no health service

[LadyEloise]

I'm cross. I'm very cross !
How can an educated man, a medic, state that the country next to his has no health service on national television.
A country that shares a border with the UK ( Northern Ireland ).
In reply to Piers Morgan about countries using different strategies to cope with the pandemic, Dr Hilary Jones says that Ireland has to do what its doing because it has no health service.

That is simply not true.

We have the Health Service Executive, with about 100,000 employed in it. Much of it is free. GP visits and prescription charges are means tested. All children under 6 and pensioners over 70 have free HP care.
He did apologise on Twitter but I think, to reach a wider audience he needs to go back on the show and state the facts.
Our Prime Minister is a medical doctor.
We have a national health service. There is a free Breast Check, Cervical check,Immunisations for children and teenagers, Bowel screening etc.

What a shame neither of the two presenters , Piers or Susanna Reid could refute his claims at the time.

Maybe he is hard of understanding.

There's a real clash of exceptionalism going on here isn't there.

@CappyCapCap - Didnt someone link the 30% had a card? Thats just over a quarter. Not half.

There are different types of cards. I think over 30% have a full card but there are also GP only cards, where you get free GP visits. When you include both, you get the almost 50% number. Everyone is also entitled to free consultant care, although if it's not life threatening, you may be waiting. Everyone is also entitled to free hospital care over a certain limit (I think it's around €400 a year).

All public outpatient care is also covered by HSE. They UK will be similar in a few years, the further the NHS is stretched longer waiting lists more people will opt for private, then more consultants will opt to work 50% of their time in the private sector, a snowball affect on public services.

EmeraldShamrock
You make a good point there.
Could definitely see that happening

UK private hospitals seem to have joined NHS for the time being, I imagine Ireland will go down this route now too.

Yes they have eggandonion.
Private hospitals will now take all patients. Having private insurance won't make any difference to your care.

Amazing social change currently, this is fascinating PhD for further students. Amazing economic times too.

I just reread my original post.
Dr. Jones said that Ireland had to do what it did because Ireland had no health service !!!

The UK is now doing what Ireland did re social distancing etc.