According to the research, health systems prioritise meeting their own objectives such as limiting costs and focusing on biomedical needs over social and mental health needs. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire
The peer-reviewed study, from Trinity College Dublin and published in the International Journal for Equity in Health, found a “high degree of fragmentation in mainstream health services impeding full access to healthcare”. “When their care is effectively outsourced to responsive specialist practitioners and organisations the health system as a whole is blind to their particular needs,” the research found.Word of mouth, a sudden dawning, and a deadly Hamas attackThe research is based on interviews with 12 people working on the frontlines of healthcare services in Dublin, ranging from doctors and nurses to social workers and senior healthcare planners.
Dr Rikke Siersbaek, research fellow and research lead, said health systems must ensure accessibility for everyone, particularly those with the greatest difficulties in engaging with care. “Health services in Ireland are fragmented and often rely on individual practitioners with a particular interest in working with excluded people and independent NGOs to meet the health needs of socially-excluded populations who often fall through the cracks of the mainstream health system,” she said.