Dr Ray Walley
The outgoing IMO President has described how his optimism upon taking office last year that the Government was about to move away from its damaging policies of austerity to ones of investment proved to be misplaced.
In his address to IMO members before handing over the chain of office to Dr John Duddy, Dr Ray Walley said that as the political parties last year turned their minds to the election, there was real optimism that such a change was possible. “Unfortunately, that has not turned out to be the case.”
Instead, in the past year the health service continued to “roll from one crisis to another”. “When these short-term austerity measures were introduced we specifically warned what would happen, and were not listened to. It is time to listen to the professionals who work in the system and who know what is required,” he suggested.
A real frustration for Dr Walley has been the insistence on the part of policymakers that they know best, even when “they know nothing at all”.
He added: “I find it particularly ironic, that in an era where political parties are more obsessed with focus groups than ever before, they routinely doubt the views of the best focus group you could ask for — the professionals who work in the health services day-in and day-out. And they reap the whirlwind as a result.”
Further frustration also existed over the poor financial management of the health service.
“This starts with the budget process where there is little confidence in the credibility of the annual budget voted for the health services and where it is not unusual for the authorities to acknowledge a budget deficit almost as soon as the budget process has concluded. This budgetary charade fools nobody, but it certainly does damage confidence and morale.”
Dr Walley was concerned that if the new Government — whenever it took up office and however it was put together — failed to appreciate the urgency of this situation, that the country would spend another five years rolling from crisis to crisis.
“If that happens I have little doubt that we will lose the confidence of a generation of highly trained doctors who will vote with their feet and leave this country to practise elsewhere and, in the process, consign our patients to a service that will be demonstrably unfit for purpose.”
dara.gantly@imt.ie
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