It was a seminal moment in Liveline's history: Susie Long's emotional call in January 2007 when she told Joe Duffy how she was going to die because she didn't have private health insurance. Today marks 10 years since Susie died at the age of 42. She was on a public health care waiting list and by the time she was seen, her cancer was too far advanced for her treatment to be successful. On Liveline, callers shared their stories of what Susie called our two-tier health system. Molly in Sligo was told after an MRI that there was a small tumour on her brain. Her GP's advice was to see a neurosurgeon, but the GP also warned her that if she went on the public waiting list, she would be waiting between 12 and 24 months to see a consultant. For peace of mind, Molly paid to see a private consultant, who told her that her tumour needed to be monitored and she should have an MRI every year. When she tried to arrange that, she was hit with this bombshell:
"My local hospital rang me and told me because I saw a consultant privately from the public original scan, I would have to pay for any ongoing follow-up MRIs."
Pat had a heart attack in 2002 and was treated in the Mater Hospital. In 2012, he experienced chest pains again and was told he needed an angiogram. However, the Mater told him that his health insurance would not cover the cost of an angiogram and he'd have to go on a public waiting list.
"That was 2012. It's 2017 and I'm still on that list, I haven't been called."
Ferga's husband has a cataract in his eye. He waited a year to see a consultant, who told him that it had to be removed and he would do it in the next few months. Almost a full year later, Ferga's husband is still waiting. Ferga also told Joe about her son, who's an alcoholic and whose teeth are rotting from poor dental hygiene and need to be taken out. Despite his GP making an urgent referral, her son is still waiting for treatment nearly two-and-a-half years later.
"We haven't even a third world hospital, it's gone that stage now."
Dr Greg Kelly has been practising medicine for almost four decades. He told Joe that for most of his career as a GP, getting patients seen in public hospitals has been very difficult.
"The very idea that a patient is seen quicker based on their ability to pay, as opposed to their clinical, medical condition, is very wrong and is discriminatory and it's apartheid and it shouldn't be happening in a state hospital which is funded by taxpayers."
Dr Kelly believes that there should be one waiting list and one level of accommodation in state hospitals. At the moment, private patients can take beds in public hospitals, to the disadvantage of public patients. Dr Kelly used the example of the GP's surgery: public and private patients are treated equally and no one gets in ahead of anybody else based on their ability to pay.
Joe asked Dr Kelly if, like Susie Long, other patients have died because they've been on waiting lists for so long that their illnesses became too advanced for treatment. Dr Kelly put it simply, that for those with potentially serious conditions:
"The longer you have to wait, the worse your prognosis is going to be."
Joe paid tribute to Susie Long throughout Thursday's Liveline and you can listen back to it here.