Warning of healthcare ‘implosion’ as insurance costs rise

PRESSURE ON the State’s public health system is mounting and patients face poorer outcomes because of the rising costs of private health insurance, it has been claimed. Hospital consultants and patient groups have said the public health system was “already under-resourced and working at full tilt” and would struggle to cope with more private patients going public. Dr Orla Hardiman, a neurologist at Beaumont Hospital, has campaigned for years for greater investment in the public system. Yesterday she warned that “both the public and the private systems are imploding” and could be facing “an Armageddon”. (Times) >