There is a danger that the present "overconcentration" on how Irish healthcare structures are organised and how they are administered will deflect attention from more fundamental and urgent issues, such as access to healthcare, a US economics professor said last night.
Prof Dale Tussing, who was speaking at the launch of Unhealthy State - Anatomy of a Sick Society by Maev-Ann Wren, said that whether a single administrator or health boards managed the system was less important than that the system was a two-tier one with GP services beyond the means of many.
"It's my hope that the timely publication of this important book will put the national debate back on track," he said.
"Recently, the discussion has shifted from healthcare delivery and finance to questions of administration, accounting and organisation as a result of leaked and published reports emphasising those dimensions. While organisation, accounting and administration are always important, there is a danger that overconcentration on such issues will deflect Ireland from the more fundamental and urgent issues of access and equity," he said.
Mr Tussing is professor of economics at Syracuse University, New York, and a former research professor with the ESRI. He has been responsible for studies of Irish education and health.
Mr Conor Brady, a former editor of The Irish Times who launched the book, said it provided both a current analysis and a historic overview of how and why the Irish health services are in "the sorry condition" they are. The analysis and arguments put forward were largely setting the agenda of public debate at present, he said.