IPH response to invited submissions to the Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Healthcare

Abstract

In June 2016, the Dáil agreed to establish a Special Committee — the Committee on the Future of Healthcare — to achieve cross-party consensus on a single long-term vision for health care and the direction of health policy in Ireland, and to make recommendations to the Dáil in that regard. The IPH submission emphasises the importance of making health inequalities a central concern within any reformed health system and highlights the importance of investment in health promotion and prevention as a means to reduce the rate of escalating demand for clinical care services associated with preventable conditions caused by unhealthy behaviours and environments. The submission calls for strategic and sustained investment in integrated public health and primary care as well as in systematic evaluation of the impacts of health system reform on population health as well as in the domain of clinical care.