The Gathering
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Who are the guests featured in this episode?
Now it is time for our Friday gathering and this week I'm joined by Grace Boland, Fine Gael TD for Dublin Fingal West, Duncan Smith, Labour TD for Dublin Fingal East, Liam Doran, former General Secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and Christina Finn, political editor with thejournal.ie. Good morning to you all. You're very, very welcome and thanks a million for coming in. Duncan. It must pain the opposition to praise a government minister, but has Jennifer Carroll-McNeill done the right thing here?
Yes, she has, yeah, and it doesn't pain me or the opposition to praise the right thing to do, and the minister did the right thing here. Sláinte Care, there's a political consensus around Sláinte Care. It is the future, we hope, of healthcare in this country, and to do it and to implement it is going to have its moments of friction, and this was one of them, and the minister stood up to the consultants in the rotunda in this regard. I'm sure there'll be more battles ahead. We know the HSE's own internal audit says that there's still a way to go in terms of private practice in public hospitals. But, you know, the minister did well this week and, you know, we still are behind in terms of implementation of sláinte care and we need to continue pushing it.
But no, it doesn't pay me at all.
OK. Grace, we know from the response into this programme, into other programmes on RT Radio, indeed, there are lots of women out there who are very annoyed about this. They feel that they are being denied choice. I presume somewhat least of them are Fine Gael voters. Do they have a point?
So firstly, I'd like to welcome the decision of the Board of the Rotunda this week. The Minister absolutely is committed to sláinte care and we saw that this week. We saw Fine Gael, we saw this government committed to sláinte care. Sláinte care is about providing public health services in our publicly funded hospitals.
What is the significance of Sláinte Care in healthcare discussions?
And if you're a consultant on a public-only contract, then you are to be providing public services in a public hospital.
OK, so you've no concerns about this issue of choice, which a lot of people have raised, particularly women.
Well, I think it's really important to say that there is private maternity cover in our hospitals today.
But there won't be for that much longer.
Well, I think we're probably looking years into the future. We have many consultants who are on the old contract who are continuing to provide maternity private maternity cover. But fundamentally, what Sláinte Care is about and what the Minister is doing is strengthening the maternity care in our publicly funded hospitals and it allows her to bring forward reforms for all women. This is about ensuring that women don't have to consider whether there's costs, whether they need to go private. It's about improving our maternity cover in our publicly funded hospitals.
Is it right that private consultants can still do private work in public hospitals?
Well, the reality is we had an old system. Sláinte care is moving us away from that system. As I said, we've seen Fine Gael and this government really committed to sláinte care and providing public only health care. But the reality is, David, they're on contracts. You know, we couldn't force them to move on to these contracts. They were given the option to do so. So for the moment, we will have to balance things.
Duncan Smith, I mean... There are a lot of women who really are very, very annoyed. I mean, we can see it in the response that comes in here because they feel that they're being denied choice, that they have a preference for a different system and they're not being allowed to do it.
There are an awful lot of women who are being denied a midwife-led care as well. I mean, that's only available in a couple of hospitals and that's something that comes up an awful lot. We know that there's a report that hasn't been published yet because it states that in terms of the number of midwives that we need, we're still way far behind. And, you know, one something our spokesperson, Marie Sherlock, has been called for is, yeah, we welcome this moment, but it has to open up a broader conversation about maternity care at all levels in this country.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Who are the guests featured in this episode?
0:00–1:47
2
What is the significance of Sláinte Care in healthcare discussions?
1:47–6:10
3
How do women feel about maternity care choices in Ireland?
6:10–10:27
4
What challenges are faced in implementing Sláinte Care reforms?
10:27–16:14
5
Can women access midwife-led care in public hospitals?
16:14–23:04
6
What are the current issues with continuity of care in maternity services?
23:04–29:26
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from Today with David McCullagh
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