Patients who feel the health system has failed them will in future be able to turn to a statutory complaints procedure, the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, announced yesterday.
At the launch of the national health strategy, he said patients would have a clear way to have their complaint formally dealt with.
"Furthermore, we plan to extend the role of the Ombudsman to include voluntary hospitals and other voluntary agencies in the health area. The legal implications of this are currently being examined - but the key message I want everybody to hear is that the health system in the coming decade will start with you, hear you, listen to you and respond to you," he said.
Mr Martin acknowledged the healthcare system was "under pressure" but said the strategy would ensure "powerful, wide-ranging reform" at every level.
He stressed the 121 actions set out in the strategy were "do-able" and "deliverable". He said people would be able to see and measure the improvements over the 10-year life of the strategy.
The last four years had seen huge increases in health spending but service deficiencies remained, he said.
"Underdeveloped services must be enhanced, demographic challenges met. Everything from preventive education to acute care can be improved.
"What we're presenting today is the solution to those problems, the improvement to those services that is not scattered or ad hoc. The improvements are part of an integrated system built on four key principles: equity, quality, accountability, people-centredness".
He said the strategy would address the poor health of poorer people and ensure fair access to services.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said the goal of the Government was to provide nothing less than a world-class service for every patient.
He said the implementation of the strategy would require the willingness of different groups to work together and in many cases to change the way business is done. "Change is never easy, but here we must make change happen ... Some say that we cannot change the system, that we cannot embark on the path of progress, that we cannot reform health care in Ireland in a fair and responsible way. I disagree. In recent years, we have seen historic progress on issues which we always thought were a core part of our national identity and were intractable or insoluble. A just peace settlement and the end to mass unemployment and emigration show us how much we can achieve when we move this nation in the right direction."
The Tβnaiste, Ms Harney, said thousands of patients and their families across the State were tired waiting for treatment but the strategy provided an end to "long, dispiriting days of waiting".
She said that people would have to wait no longer than three months for operations by the end of 2004.