Health professionals saw a chance to highlight their concerns - and took it, writes Eithne Donnellan
Robust exchanges at press conferences in Government Buildings are nothing new, but they usually happen when journalists ask ministers difficult questions or make assertions which ministers don't like.
What was unusual about yesterday's heated exchanges was the fact journalists were not involved. They took place between the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, and healthcare professionals invited to the launch of a progress report on the implementation of a €1 billion Government-backed primary healthcare strategy, published in 2001.
The strategy promised 600 primary care teams would be set up over a 10-year period. These would include family doctors, midwives, social workers, public health nurses and physiotherapists providing care to patients in the community from so-called one-stop shops. To date, 10 teams have been set up, one in each health board area, on a pilot basis.
Yesterday's report asserts good progress has been made - but doctors claim differently.
The Irish Medical Organisation's president, Dr James Reilly, maintains there has been no "realistic progress", and he claims patients are not receiving any additional services as a result of the pilot projects.
He points to the new services listed in the report as having been developed by the pilot project in Virginia, Co Cavan. These include "baby massage clinics, breastfeeding support groups, smoking cessation groups, cryotherapy service, lithium monitoring clinic". Nothing significant, he concludes.
Furthermore, he believes the strategy was grossly underfunded and those involved on the ground are hugely frustrated.
This may go some way to explaining why temperatures boiled over at the press briefing. When Mr Martin was asked by RTÉ about Dr Reilly's claims of gross under-funding, the Minister rubbished the claims. Dr Reilly then intervened.
It could be argued that press conferences are only for journalists to ask questions, as the Minister pointed out. But Dr Reilly said he was invited to attend and couldn't sit idly by when accused by the Minister of making "flawed" comments. Moreover, they were comments he wished to stand over. He rejected the assertion that his presence was a PR stunt.
But whether his colleague, Dr Martin Daly, should have gone on to accost the Minister on the issue of medical-card eligibility is debatable. There are other forums for the IMO to discuss such issues with Mr Martin, as the Minister stressed.
But from what Dr Daly said, it is obvious that GPs on the ground are hugely concerned that they see real hardship on a daily basis, with patients on less than the minimum wage, but without medical cards, coming to them needing care but unable to afford it.
Even the chairman of the group presenting the progress report, Prof Ivan Perry, had said earlier that current income thresholds for medical cards were too low, "resulting in significant hardship for individuals and families".
The spat between the Minister and healthcare professionals might have been saved for a private meeting. But it has served to increase pressure on the Minister to deliver on a Government commitment to issue an extra 200,000 medical cards and to provide sufficient funding for the strategy.