IT’S HARD TO remember a time when Ireland’s healthcare system wasn’t a source of strife for patients and healthcare workers across the country. 

Right now, there are some reasons for cautious optimism: Covid-19 pressure is easing to a certain extent and progress is being made in the hugely ambitious Sláintecare programme.

So are things heading in the right direction to improve the system? Or is there still a long way to go? 

For the next few weeks, The Journal‘s The Good Information Project will focus on a number of different aspects of Ireland’s healthcare system, looking at both the problems and the possible solutions. 

And the system is in need of solutions. 

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has reported record levels of hospital overcrowding, with thousands of patients left on trolleys. 

There has been a 44% increase in Irish doctors emigrating to Australia, frontline staff are reporting high levels of burnout and waiting lists for many surgeries remain high.

Non-consultant hospital doctors will potentially go on strike, hundreds of consultant roles remain unfilled, carers feel unsupported, mental health services are stretched and under-resourced.

So what are the possible solutions? We will be taking a look at a broad range of issues in the weeks ahead.

We will examine how prepared Ireland is to tackle future pandemics, and whether lessons will be remembered from Covid-19. 

We will take a deep dive into Sláintecare to see if it will be the saviour the health service is calling out for. 

Waiting lists have long been a huge issue for the health service – the Health Minister has a plan to tackle them, but will it work?

We will also examine Ireland’s national plan to provide services to children with disabilities and why some families, organisations and special schools take issue with it. 

Most importantly we want to hear from patients and healthcare workers. We want to report the experiences of those dealing with the health system on a daily basis and how they believe it can be improved. Their voices are crucial in this reporting.

We want to hear from you

The Journal launched The Good Information Project with the goal of enlisting readers to take a deep dive with us into key issues impacting Ireland right now.

You can keep up to date by signing up to The Good Information Project newsletter in the box below. If you want to join the discussion, ask questions or share your ideas on this or other topics, you can find our Facebook group here or contact us directly via WhatsApp.

This work is also co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work are the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.