SCHOOL CHILDREN WALKING along the roads with their friends invariably have two things in their hands – their smart phone and a plastic bottle of a sugary drink, often topped up with caffeine. Workplace canteen tables overflow with shop cakes, biscuits and chocolate. Throwaway bubble gum- flavoured vapes are widely available, while city streets are rife with the sickly-sweet smell of cannabis and shared needles thrown in the gutters.

Pre-teens download pornography on the ubiquitous smartphone that leave them vulnerable to grooming and the addictive taste of social media. Legislation to ensure alcohol harms are clearly outlined on every bottle is passed, then delayed. Laws to ensure speed limits in cities are limited to 30km/h are inexplicably passed to city councils to individually decide whether they will enact them or not.

All around us, we see the pervasive influence of the profit- driven capitalistic culture delaying, denying and obfuscating the harm caused by their products while the ‘wellbeing industry’ rakes in profits and mops up the damage caused by food, alcohol, tobacco, smartphones, and bigger and heavier cars.

At the Health Service Executive’s Integrated Care Conference month, Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll McNeill said it was “not sustainable” for health spending to continue at current high rates and that her priority for the next budget is infrastructure not recruitment.

“What we need is extra capacity, we need extra infrastructure. There is no point in recruiting extra surgeons if they don’t have a place to do surgical activity.”

Taoiseach Micheál Martin also addressed the conference suggesting that the government approach through the Enhanced Community Care Programme seeks to reduce dependency on the hospital system by delivering increased levels of healthcare provision in the community setting, with service delivery reoriented towards general practice, primary care and community-based services.

While enhanced integration of health services aligned with boosting community services is important, what is rarely mentioned is the reality that the........

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