Motion no: 44
This conference, noting: The welcome establishment, in the Programme for Government, of a special, All Party, Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Health Care. The Congress submission to that committee, made in October 2016, which clearly called for the introduction of a single tiered public health service which treats everyone equally. The continuing daily overcrowding, facing our existing, overstretched, public health service, which still leaves admitted patients on trolleys, lengthening waiting lists for access to care, both in the hospital and the community; and The reality that our public health service, upon which workers and their families rely, is too small to meet demand,calls on this conference to reaffirm our policy, which seeks a properly funded world class health service, and directs the incoming Executive Council to: Engage immediately, with all political parties, on the work, and report, of the Special Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Health Care. Seek from all political parties a commitment to adopt, as their long term policy, the introduction of a world class public health service, funded through a system of progressive general taxation, with a declaration that the State will, over time, cease to fund, or to subvent, any form of private health care provision; and continue to demand that this new, single tiered, public health service must be an employer of choice offering all staff the opportunity to fully utilise their skills and talents in an environment which encourages innovation, autonomy and excellence
