IMO calls Programme for Government health strategy a 'disgrace'

The plans include baby boxes for all new parents, cheaper hospital parking, more free GP care and more nurses.

The sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under 18 will be banned, and planning restrictions on shops selling “junk food” near schools will be introduced.

They are among a raft of measures the new government believes will deliver “A Healthier Future”, one of a number of catchphrase goals from its Universal Health Care “mission”.

Others include “A Health-led Approach to Drugs Misuse”, which will see greater use of Adult Cautions for people caught with drugs for their own personal use.

And the health policy also calls for “An Age-friendly Ireland”, with a promise to take a look at establishing a gated village for people with dementia.

The IMO says the Programme for Government has ignored the country’s 100 or so public health doctors who, the IMO says, are among the “real heroes” of Covid-19.

hey were pivotal in all decisions and advice with regard to public health throughout the country, including the government's roadmap.

However, while pay and other promises for nurses - another cohort of health workers lauded as “frontline heroes” during the crisis - are mentioned, public health doctors aren’t.

Indeed, in the run-up to March, they had been engaged in negotiations with the government over them getting consultant status, something they have sought for years.

“It’s a disgrace,” Dr Denis McCauley, chairperson of the Irish Medical Organisation’s GP committee, said.“After everything they did during this crisis, I am shocked that they were not even mentioned in the document.

“There is a long-standing issue about giving them consultant status. They have been working night and day since March to keep the country safe and the only public health thing they say in the Programme For Government is they will protect our public health.

“The first thing I would have expected the government to do is to show respect to them and to finish up the discussions they were having about consultant status.

Dr McCauley said public health doctors should get "what they deserve and what they have definitely earned over the past three months".

He described the Programme For Government health strategy document in general as “fluffy, fluffy, vague and vague”.

He said: “They are just throwing the Slainte Care blanket over everything but in no way actually saying what Slainte Care is...It has no substance at all.

“It is filled with such soft, lovely, reassuring words that - at the present minute - mean very little to me and our members.”