The impact of the recession on health and medicine will be among a range of topics to be discussed at the opening session of the annual conference of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) in Killarney this afternoon.
With more than 430,000 people now signing on the live register, Dr Ronan Boland, chairman of the IMO's GP committee, will speak about how this has led to greater numbers qualifying for medical cards and more reliance on the public hospital system, as a result of fewer people being able to pay for private health insurance.
He will also speak about the importance for the Government of learning from the mistakes of the 1980s, when thousands of acute hospital beds were taken out of the system to cut costs. The HSE has already confirmed it plans to close a further 1,100 acute hospital beds this year on top of hundreds already closed in 2009.
Meanwhile, the outgoing IMO president Dr John Morris said that while it has been a difficult year for the whole country, doctors haven't escaped the pain and neither have patients who now have to contend with growing waiting lists for treatment.
"In what has been a difficult year for the whole country, the medical profession has not escaped the pain, but what has upset me even more is the suffering of our patients. Growing waiting lists, record numbers of people on emergency department trolleys, strangling of resources to primary care and excessive waiting times for medical cards to be processed," he said. "But standing here talking about the problems we face may highlight a few issues in the short term, but will resolve nothing in the long term.
"That is why the IMO is committed to constructive engagement over the next 12 months in order to work in cooperation with our partners in health care to minimise the impact of the economic crisis on our patients," he said.
The conference, which continues until Saturday, will see a wide range of issues being debated ranging from the need to tackle tobacco smuggling and to regulate all home care services.
There will also be a call on all local authorities to introduce a speed limit of 30kph in all urban and residential areas and the IMO will also urge the Government to introduce legislation to ensure that all persons found guilty of drink driving go for mandatory rehabilitation and assessment.
The IMO represents nearly 8,000 doctors including GPs, public health doctors, junior doctors and hospital consultants.