The socialist republican party éirígí have described the latest proposals by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to slash essential services at a number of hospitals in the HSE west region as "appalling" and "totally unnecessary". According to éirígí Sligeach activist Gerry Casey, lives would be placed at great risk if these cutbacks proceed.
Casey was speaking after it emerged that from mid-July, the HSE are planning to shut the Accident & Emergency (A&E) unit at Roscommon county hospital at weekends and at night-time on week days. Staff shortages, specifically the lack of junior doctors as a result of the ban on recruitment are believed to be behind the move.
Plans are also underway for major cutbacks at Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar where it is expected that a number of operating theatres will be closed during the summer months in order to cut costs for the HSE.
Casey said: “These latest plans by the HSE and their political masters in the Fine Gael/Labour coalition to slash essential services at both these hospitals are not just appalling, they are totally unnecessary.”
“Shutting the A&E unit at Roscommon County hospital on week nights and completely at weekends will lead to unnecessary deaths as witnessed when similar services were withdrawn from other hospitals in the past. It will also lead to increased pressure and even longer waiting times at A&E units in Galway and Sligo which will have to deal with those who should be treated in Roscommon.”
He added: “These hospitals are already overstretched dealing with current patient levels. The increased workload will result in already overworked and under-resourced staff being placed in an impossible situation which will result in yet a further reduction in the quality and efficiency of service that patients require.”
“According to the general manager at Mayo General Hospital Charlie Meehan, amongst the proposed cuts would be the closure of two operating theatres during July and August as well as shutting a ward and ceasing orthopaedic services. He also revealed they were considering reducing the numbers of coronary care beds in an attempt to save money.”
“Labour and Fine Gael are in power for 100 days and already they are showing that they are taking up where Fianna Fáil and the Green party left off. Pre-election promises to protect essential services have already been cast aside as they set about continuing to dismantle our public hospitals and public health service to facilitate privatisation. This follows their broken pledge to return breast cancer services to Sligo General Hospital within those first 100 days.” (click here)
He concluded: “Fine Gael and Labour must not be allowed to put private profit and paying off the private gambling debts of bankers and developers before the health and well being of the people. If these cuts are implemented, the reality is that people will suffer and die unnecessarily as a result of deliberate political decisions.”
In the run-up to the general election in the twenty six counties earlier this year, the usual rash of political promises were made by those hoping to be elected to Leinster House. In the Sligo/North Leitrim constituency, probably the one single issue that was to the fore in that campaign and indeed throughout the past couple of years, has been the removal of breast cancer services from Sligo General Hospital and the campaign to have it returned.
Despite massive public opposition, in 2009 Sligo's Breast Cancer Services were finally shut down and transferred to University College Hospital Galway (UCHG). The Health Service Executive (HSE) rationale was that UCHG was one of the eight new centres of excellence established by the government where those from the north-west requiring treatment would recieve superior treatment than Sligo could provide, despite Sligo's excellent record in cancer care.
100 day Countdown Near Sligo General Hospital
The reality was totally different as campaigners and medical personnel had warned of in the run-in to the transfer of services. UCHG was already having difficulty as a result of government cutbacks in the health service coping with its present workload and patient care before they ever had to deal with the increased volume of cancer sufferers from the north west.
Since the move, government cutbacks have caused chaos at times for the medical staff trying to provide an essential service and for patients who have had to endure long waits, lying on trolleys, canceled appointments and delayed surgery. Indeed the numbers of patients, including cancer sufferers, forced to lie on trolleys at UCHG in 2010 reached an all-time high of 4,100. Those figures are set to be surpassed in 2011 as so far this year the numbers confined to trollies has been increasing steadily on last years record high. Most days the numbers effected are somewhere between 20 and 40 patients.
In April the HSE's own Healthstat survey confirmed UCHG as the state's worst hospital. So much for the hyped up 'centre of excellence'!
Health Minister James Reilly
Just over a year ago (March 29 2010) the then Fine Gael spokesperson on Health, now Minister for Health, James Reilly made a firm commitment to return the services to Sligo, describing the transfer of Sligo's cancer services to Galway the previous year as “not a balanced approach to cancer care”.
Yet as recently as this week that very same James Reilly, now the Minister with responsibility for this issue, replying to a question in Leinster House as to fulfilling their 100 day pledge, the Minister refused to give any answer as to if and when the promised return of services would occur.
All the candidates bar the Green party's Johnny Gogan, expressed their support for the return of the cancer services to Sligo General Hospital if they were elected and their parties were in government. Specific promises were made, and recorded during live debates on Ocean FM radio and at a public meeting in the Clarion Hotel that was broadcast live on the internet (click on the video below).
In particular, the Fine Gael candidates, Minister John Perry and Deputy Tony McLoughlin and the then Labour candidate and now Senator Susan O'Keefe made specific commitments that the cancer services would be returned within 100 days of them taking office. Not only did they give those commitments, they also promised to resign their seats if the pledges were not delivered as promised. Indeed Labour's commitment went even further, pledging not just to return breast cancer services to Sligo but to actually make Sligo General Hospital a ninth centre of excellence.
With just 15 days to go until that deadline expires, it is clear that this Fine Gael/Labour coalition have no intention of re-instating these services despite all their promises. Once again, people are being betrayed by those who claim to represent them and their interests.
A spokesperson for the Save our Cancer Services - North West told the Sligo Today website that the Ministers reply sounded “as if Mary Harney herself wrote it”.
Former Health Minister Mary Harney
In relation to the pre-election commitments the spokesperson added that “we have strong clear commitments they (breast cancer services) will be restored and if this letter means otherwise than we are talking about an imminent letter of resignation from John Perry followed by a similar one from Tony McLoughlin.”
“That was the clear pre-election promise they both gave and this turn of events could not only turn out to be tragic for Sligo General Hospital and the provision of cancer care in this region but also for both these politicians. Their commitment was not just that services would be restored but that in the event that that did not materialise they would resign”.
Yesterday (June 2) Minister Perry refused to say on local radio whether the services would be restored or not within the 100 days. In a live interview on Ocean FM's North West Today programme, Perry refused to give a straight answer to any question relating to the services. Unhappy with the issue of the pledge and his promise to resign being raised if the services were not returned, Perry hung up in the middle of the interview. (Click on the image below to listen to the interview)
While campaigners and the public in general throughout the north west will be extremely angry at this U-turn by both Fine Gael and Labour, they should not be surprised. Already, just three months into this coalition, there are a litany of election promises that have been binned now that they have secured power and have their backsides on Ministerial seats.
These broken promises show the true nature of our so-called democracy. It shows how relying on electing politicians every five years is to a large degree meaningless as we have no control over what they do, what decisions they make once there. Allowing us to occasionally put a mark beside a candidate on a ballot paper is designed not to enable change or allow people's participation in decisions effecting them, their communities or their country. No, it is designed to give people that illusion while the decision making processes remain firmly within the grip of the political and business classes that control this country.
Real democracy must be a continuous process of decision making relating to all aspects of society with those who are affected by those decisions controlling the decision-making process and must be based upon economic democracy. Power and influence are only ever wielded by those who control the wealth and wealth producing means in society. Therefore to have real democracy then it must be based upon the ownership and control of the means of production by the mass of working people. Without that ownership and control, meaningful change and a just truly democratic society is impossible.
To borrow a phrase from the title of former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone: If voting changed anything they would abolish it
Take an example of a surgeon or nurse who takes a deliberate professional decision knowing it will result in serious injury and deaths, that individual will in all likelihood lose their job, their pension rights and face criminal prosecution and possibly jail for their actions. One would assume this to be the norm in all professions but as events in the past week have shown once again, it is not the norm at all.
Over the past week we have witnessed the rush by Ministers in the Fianna Fáil/Green party coalition to abandon the sinking ship of an administration that has brought the economy of this state to its knees. Minister after Minister including such 'luminaries' as Dermot Ahern, Noel Dempsey, Micheál Martin, Tony Killeen and Batt O'Keefe all handed in their resignations as the final collapse of the administration draws ever closer.
The resignation of Mary Harney as Minister for Health however was probably the most talked about among communities the length and breadth of island. While all those who served as Ministers in the coalition and their party colleagues that voted through their legislation collectively bear responsibility for the actions of this administration, Harney was the inspiration and driving force behind the deliberate run down of the public health service and the relentless push to privatise it.
The unfortunate reality is that there probably isn't a working class family throughout the state who has not been directly effected and who have not suffered as a result of decisions initiated and forced through by Harney regardless of the suffering they would cause and the lives they would ruin.
As éirígí Dublin City Cllr Louise Minihan said in the immediate aftermath of Harneys resignation, she will be remembered "for her extremely callous and uncaring attitude and the unnecessary hardship, suffering and death caused as a direct result of policies implemented by her."
She added: "Far too many families have mourned their loved ones who died because of delays in diagnosis and treatment as a result of policies she implemented. Few will mourn the resignation of Harney the minister for death.”
As Minister for Health Mary Harney planned and overseen the dismantling of our hospitals and public health system at the same time as she and her colleagues were pumping tens of billions of euro into bailing out the banks.
She has slashed hospital budgets as well as the numbers of nurses, junior doctors and other essential front line staff. She has closed more than 1600 beds, shut down wards and accident and emergency departments and reduced and removed essential services, including vital diagnosis procedures and cancer care facilities.
Hundreds of sick patients every single day are forced to lie on trolleys in Accident and Emergency departments awaiting a bed. An all-time high was reached earlier this month when the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) revealed that there were 569 ill patients lying on trolleys awaiting a bed in public hospitals around the state on the 5th of January.
There are massive waiting lists and ill people are forced to travel longer distances to receive vital treatment, as local services are reduced significantly or shut down completely. People are having to endure unnecessary suffering and are ultimately dying, and will continue to die, as a direct result of Harney's decisions.
Make no mistake about it, she was fully aware of the consequences of her actions. Her decisions were not knee jerk reactions or decisions forced upon her. All were carefully thought out, planned. and implemented. And all the while the medical professionals, trade unions and patient support groups had all made clear to her on an ongoing basis the effect her policies were having on patients and staff alike including the huge risks placed on patient safety.
But, unlike the example of the surgeon or nurse we mentioned at the start of this article, Harney and all her other colleagues who have wreaked havoc on our health service and the economy now walk away with a massive pension and without fear of criminal prosecution.
The fact that she has not been forced to hand back her pension and will not face justice for her actions exposes yet again the two tier nature of this state. It is fundamentally corrupt. The justice system is designed, not to dispense justice, but to protect the interests of the wealthy political and business class.
In the same week as Harney resigned, peaceful protesters went on trial and were convicted for demonstrating against the bank bailouts, while not one banker or politician has faced justice for their role in the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank and the complete banking sector. Now despite the massive unnecessary suffering and death she was responsible for, along with her ministerial colleagues and the Sean Fitzpatrick's and Micheal Fingleton's of this world, she is allowed to evade justice and is simply allowed to walk off into the sunset to continue to live a lavish extravagant lifestyle at our expense.
That is the reality of the state we live in - fundamentally corrupt and rotten to the core. Talk of reforming the system is meaningless. What is needed is the complete dismantling of the system and the creation of a new one, a socialist one - Revolution, not reform.
éirígí Dublin City Councillor Louise Minihan has welcomed Mary Harney's resignation as Minister for Health and said that working class communities throughout Ireland would rejoice at her departure. She also said that Harney must be made to hand back any pensions she is now due to recieve.
Cllr Minihan said: “Harney has overseen and implemented the systematic dismantling of our hospitals and the public health care system in order to pave the way for the full privatisation of it. The end result has been increasing numbers of hospital patients on trolleys, longer waiting lists, ill people having to travel long distances to receive treatment, prolonged suffering, lives being placed unnecessarily at risk and avoidable deaths.”
“At the same time as she was slashing hospital budgets and essential services, along with her cabinet colleagues, she was happy to protect the wealth of the bankers and developers by pumping tens of billions of euros of taxpayers money into bailing out the banks and paying off their private gambling debts. This was money that could have, and should have, been spent creating a first class health service accessible to all based on medical need and not on a persons wealth.”
“Harney will be remembered for her extremely callous and uncaring attitude and the unnecesary hardship, suffering and death caused as a direct result of policies implemented by her. Far too many families have mourned their loved ones who died because of delays in diagnosis and treatment as a result of policies she implemented. Few will mourn the resignation of Harney the Minister for Death."
Cllr Minihan concluded: “Considering the appalling legacy she leaves behind her and the enormous suffering she is responsible for, it is inconceivable that she could be allowed to feather her own nest and benefit financially from her time as Minister for Health. She must be forced to hand back her very substantial pensions and be brought to account for her actions and the unnecessary hardship and death she has caused.”
It appears that yet more hospital cuts are on the way here in the north west. The latest hospital to be targeted by the Health Service Executive (HSE) and their political masters is Our Lady's Hospital in Manorhamilton Co Leitrim.
Over recent years, Our Lady's has already been downgraded significantly, having suffered the loss of a wide range of services previously carried out in the hospital. Amongst the loss of services has been the closure of the Accident & Emergency (A&E) department, the removal of endoscopy and maternity services and the transfer of the orthopaedic unit to Sligo General Hospital (SGH).
Our Lady's Hospital Manorhamilton
The fear of most people in the north Leitrim area, including staff at the hospital, is that the ultimate aim of the HSE is to shut the facility altogether, shutting it down one cutback and downgrade at a time.
When questioned on their plans for the Rheumatology services, the HSE used the dreaded R word saying that they were continuing to “'review' all elements of the Rheumatology service” at Our Lady's. They went on to confirm that what they describe as a “reconfiguration of beds” will take place in the coming months at the hospital admitting that there were plans already underway to transfer acute in-patient Rheumatology services to Sligo General Hospital which is already suffering the brunt of savage cutbacks with yet more planned.
Last year SGH seen the removal of its breast cancer mammography and surgical services to Galway, the closure of its dedicated stroke unit, the loss of 72 beds and the cancellation of all elective surgery for the last two months of the year. Orthopaedic services have also been particularly hard hit. As pointed out at the start of this article, orthopaedic services previously provided in Manorhamilton was transferred to Sligo a number of years back. Now those services in Sligo, which were supposed to cater for Manorhamiltons patients as well, have been stripped to the bone. One of the two orthopaedic wards has already been shut down, with patient capacity reduced from 52 beds to just 18.
Now those 18 beds are being reduced even further to just 12 beds as the hospital starts to cut back on elective surgery and orthopaedic activity for the rest of the year as part of its cost cutting measures.
In a statement released on August 3rd this year, the Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation (INMO) made clear that “the level of cuts, currently being imposed upon our public health service, are compromising patient care, lowering standards and greatly increasing the clinical risk to patients.”
The statement added: “Furthermore frontline nurses and midwives are having their views ignored and every effort they are making, to highlight real and significant risks to patients, are being simply set aside.”
According to éirígí activist Gerry Casey, the HSE and their political masters have decimated services at SGH and Our Lady's in Manorhamilton and put lives at risk in the process.
Casey said: “The HSE and this administration has repeatedly shown a callous disregard for the health and well being of the people of this region and for the public health service in general.”
“What we are seeing is cutback after cutback in essential front line services. The end result is patients on trolleys, longer waiting lists, ill people having to travel long distances to receive treatment, prolonged suffering and lives being placed unnecessarily at risk.”
He added: “As éirígí have repeatedly pointed out, contrary to what the HSE and their political masters would have us believe, the cutbacks are not based on economic necessity. They are instead part of a deliberate strategy of running down and dismantling the public health care system in order to pave the way for the privatisation of our hospitals.”
“Given the choice of protecting the health and well being of the people they claim to represent or bail out the banks, they have shown where their warped priorities lie by taking a conscious decision to pump tens of billions of euros into bailing out the banks while slashing essential health services.”
Casey concluded: “This is a fight that working class communities cannot afford to lose. It is vital that no compromise or 'deals' are made on these cutbacks, in particular from the leadership of the health service Trade Unions. It has been previous such 'deals' that has led our health service to this present crisis. Reducing the level of cutbacks is not a solution - only the ending of the drive towards privatisation of the public health system and the complete reversal of all cutbacks is acceptable.”
The following letter to the editor from éirígí Sligeach activist Gerry Casey was recently published in the Western People Newspaper. It can be viewed online here
Mayo General Hospital
A Chara
Your editorial (August 3) rightly expresses concern over HSE plans to slash services at Mayo General Hospital and the health service in general.
Our health service is in crisis, a deliberately manufactured crisis. What has happened in recent years has been the systematic stripping down of services from hospitals around the country.
This is no accident. It is ideology driven and part of a deliberate strategy of running down the public health system, increasingly privatising all aspects of health care, including our hospitals.
The current economic crisis, brought about by a combination of greed and corruption, is being used as a smokescreen for implementing these cuts and privatising the public healthcare system.
Despite Government claims, there is no excuse for cutting funding and services for hospitals. The money to properly fund our health service is there, only they believe spending tens of billions on bank bailouts and possibly €10 million to welcome the English monarch are more important than spending on people’s health.
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has attempted to justify his savage cutbacks saying there was “no pot of gold that can be raided from the wealthy that can solve our difficulties”. This is untrue. The business elite, who amassed billions of euros on the backs of workers throughout the Celtic Tiger, remain wealthy individuals. Despite the recession, the richest people in this country have got even richer.
Hundreds of billions of euro worth of oil and gas lie off the Irish coast, the rights to these resources given away by previous Fianna Fáil administrations. Those natural resources could be nationalised at the stroke of a pen.
Yet the Government has taken deliberate decisions not to nationalise these natural resources and not to tax the rich. Instead, they are content to reduce workers’ incomes and slash essential health and education services, including funding for our hospitals.
Tomorrow morning (Saturday August 14), a demonstration against proposed HSE (Health Service Executive) cutbacks at Roscommon County Hospital is to take place. The protest march, organised by the Roscommon Health Action Committee (HAC) is to commence at the Hyde Centre in Roscommon town at 11am tomorrow morning and will proceed from there to the hospital itself, where a ‘Hands Around Our Hospital Protest’ will take place.
Like other hospitals throughout the region, Roscommon's has already suffered severe cutbacks and is bracing itself for more in the imminent future, including the possible closure of the hospital completely.
Roscommon County Hospital
A report commissioned earlier this year by the HSE West recommended the closure of the hospital. Ironically, it transpires that the cost of having that report commissioned cost the HSE a massive €90,000, money which IMPACT Trade Union say could have kept 12 nurses or clerical staff employed from now until the end of the year.
Urging people throughout the West and Midlands to support Saturday's march, éirígí activist Gerry Casey said that there must be no compromise or backing down by the Unions in relation to the proposed cutbacks in the HSE West region.
Casey said: "What is at stake here is of vital importance for future generations. The planned cutbacks are not about reducing services or even closing hospitals due to necessity. It is part of a planned strategy by the HSE, on behalf of the Fianna Fáil /Green party coalition to run down the public health service in order to pave the way for the privatisation of our hospitals and our health care system."
He added: "The current health system we have is a medical form of apartheid where the wealthy get treated whenever they want, while those reliant on the public health service have to join ever lenghtening queues to receive essential treatment. Such a system ensures that people suffer needlessly and die needlessly."
"The release this week by the Irish Cancer Society (ICS) of figures showing the continued increase in the numbers waiting more than three months for a potentially life saving colonoscopy, is yet more evidence of the danger to life posed by the HSE and this administrations health policies. People should be under no illusion. Lives have been lost as a result of cutbacks and even more will be lost if they get to impose new cutbacks"
Casey continued: "Mary Harney and her cronies in government peddle the lie that they have not the finance to properly fund our health service and that cutbacks are unavoidable. But the bottom line is, as éirígí have repeatedly pointed out, that none of these cutbacks are in any way necessary. Imposition of a wealth tax, the nationalisation of our natural resources and the proper distribution of the current finances at the governments disposal, would allow not just for a halt to any cutbacks, but also for a reversal of those already imposed and more importantly for proper new investment to be made to create an efficient public service available to all, based solely on medical need and not based on ability to pay."
"Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have pumped tens of billions of euros into bailing out the banks and developers. This is money that could have been used to fund our hospitals and invest in their future. Given the choice of protecting the health and welfare of patients who rely on the public health care system or protecting the excessive living standards of the wealthy political and business elite, the coalition chose the latter."
"This is a fight that we cannot afford to lose. There can be and must be no compromise or 'deals' on these cutbacks particularly from the leadership of the Trade Unions within the health service. Reducing the cutbacks is not a solution - only the scrapping and reversal of cutbacks is acceptable. Previous 'deals' have led us to this point. As the INMO (Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation) General secretary pointed out recently: 'The INMO voted against the Croke Park proposals primarily on the basis that they require 6,000 posts to be taken out of our health service in a haphazard, uncontrolled and unplanned manner with scant regard for the impact upon patients and their needs and requirements. We are now seeing the real impact of this flawed approach.'"
Casey concluded: "Support tomorrows (Saturday August 14) march and rally in Roscommon town and all similar protests against the proposed cutbacks. Send the message to Leinster House - Fund our Hospitals, Not the Banks."
Thousands of people took to the streets of Letterkenny in Co Donegal yesterday (Saturday Aug 7) to show their anger at Dublin Government and HSE (Health Service Executive) plans to slash services at Letterkenny General Hospital and to impose other cuts throughout the health service.
Around 3000 people assembled at the station roundabout in the town at midday for the rally which was organised by the newly formed 'Save Donegal Health Services' campaign group. Led by a piper, the large crowd marched up the Port Road towards the Main Street before turning up High Road and proceeding to the hospital itself where a number of speakers addressed the crowd.
Amongst those who delivered speeches to those assembled were spokespeople from the three main health service Trade Unions, IMPACT, SIPTU and the INMO (Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation). Speakers from the Voice of Older People Donegal (VOPD) and Donegal Action for Cancer Care (DACC) also addressed the crowd.
The planned cuts for Letterkenny include a reduction in day services, the closure of an operating theatre, the removal of at least 13 beds from Orthopaedics and the Intensive Care Unit as well as the slashing of the numbers of hours being worked by almost 100 members of staff at the hospital. They are also to close a pharmacy and shut the hospital's mortuary on a Saturday. Similar cutbacks are planned at Sligo General Hospital and other hospitals throughout the region.
Smaller hospitals such as the Sheil Hospital in Ballyshannon and Lifford Community hospital, both in County Donegal, are threatened with imminent closure. Now the HSE are saying that they may also close a major hospital somewhere in the west but they have refused to say which hospital they have their sights on.
Fianna Fáil and the Green party are also believed to planning even further cutbacks in the region of €600 million in the upcoming budget beyond these current plans to slash services.
Following the rally, the HSE issued a statement in which they claimed they would "protect front-line services" and that all services provided by HSE West would be provided in a "safe manner".
Sligo éirígí activist Gerry Casey, who was one of many éirígí activists from Counties Sligo and Donegal to take part in the Rally, dismissed the HSE's assertions saying that the planned cutbacks are "completely unnecessary" and will cause "unnecessary suffering and death". He said the Dublin government are deliberately slashing services and stripping the health service bare to facilitate the privatisation of the public health service.
Speaking following the rally, Casey said: "The savage cutbacks planned by the HSE and their political masters will decimate what remains of the public health service. They are using the excuse of the recession, caused by their corruption and greed in the first place, to strip the public service bare and to press ahead with the privatising of our public health service. It is also being used to drive down workers wages and condition within the health service."
He said: "Contrary to the lies and spin emanating from the political and business elite, all of these cutbacks are completely unnecessary. While Brian Lenihan and Mary Harney say they cannot afford to properly fund our health service, they have no hesitation in pumping tens of billions of euros to bail out the banking sector and the wealthy business elite. They have no hesitation in squandering millions of euros on flying around on the government jet or to invite the English Monarch here on a state visit. The message is clear – the profits of the banks and the rich mean more to this administration than the health and lives of those who depend on the public health care system."
He added: "Despite the recession, Ireland remains a wealthy country, where the rich have got even richer while workers and those on welfare have been made to bail out the banks and developers. A wealth tax could and should be introduced to make the rich pay. Our valuable natural resources, which should never have been given away in the first place, must be nationalised and the hundreds of billions of euros worth of oil and gas utilised to create a first class health service for all."
Casey concluded: "If the government are allowed get away with these proposed cuts, the reality is that people who cannot afford private health care will suffer unnecessarily and even die as a result. We should not be surprised that this administration puts private profit before the health and well being of the people they claim to govern on behalf of but we have a duty and responsibility to not let them away with it. If we fail to stop what can only be described as the wanton vandalism and destruction of our health service then future generations will suffer greatly and needlessly."
Opinion piece by éirígí's spokesperson in Donegal Micheál Cholm MacGiolla Easbuig. This article was carried in yesterdays Tir Chonaill newspaper (Aug 4th 2010)
In recent weeks, the Fianna Fáil/Green party coalition have been flagging up yet further cutbacks they plan to introduce in the upcoming budget. This follows a series of the most savage budget cutbacks imposed since the foundation of the 26 county state.
This administration's policies has decimated the economy, created mass unemployment (22,000 + in Donegal alone), driven thousands of families into poverty, forced tens of thousands of young people to emigrate once more and systematically stripped down our hospitals and health services to crisis point.
Letterkenny General Hospital
Not content to see tens of thousands of people lose their jobs, the government heaped further misery on already struggling familes by slashing their social welfare, cutting child benefit, ending the Chrismas bonus, introducing the carbon Tax and increasing fuel costs. All this has led to a sharp decline in people's living standards and has caused increased poverty.
Institute of Public Health in Ireland research published in 2007 claimed that fuel poverty directly effects people’s health. According to the Report, every year during the winter months, almost 3,000 people die due to preventable, cold-related illness.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office show that, in 2008, more than four per cent of people were living in consistent poverty, with almost 15 per cent at risk of poverty. Almost a third of those living in consistent poverty were children. All those figures will have risen dramatically over the past two years as unemployment soared and wages and welfare were cut.
In recent weeks we have seen HSE proposals to slash services even further at Letterkenny General Hospital and elsewhere throughout the state. Smaller hospitals such as Lifford's community hospital and the Sheil Hospital in Ballyshannon face closure also. Such cuts, if the government get their way, will mean severe reductions in essential services, longer waiting lists, increased workloads for already overburdened front line hospital staff and increased suffering and even deaths for patients who will not get the medical care and assistance they need when they need it.
However, if that was not bad enough, the HSE's political masters are now intent in forcing through even more severe cutbacks in the upcoming budget. They are planning to slash the Health, Education and Social Welfare Budgets by €1.1 billion, €700 million of that from an already underfunded, understaffed and under-resourced health service.
Fianna Fáil say these cuts are necessary but the reality is the opposite. There is no excuse for cutting funding and services for hospitals. It is a deliberate political decision and strategy based on Fianna Fáil's and the now-defunct PD's right wing privatisation ideology.
When it comes to throwing tens of billions of euros to bail out the banks or €8 million to bring the Commander in Chief of the British army Elizabeth Windsor to this state next year Fianna Fáil and the Greens have no problem. Yet ask them to invest in our hospitals and and they tell us the money is not there.
But the money is there, only they believe bailing out banks is more important than our health. This remains a wealthy state, however the wealth is controlled by a small minority. As workers and those on welfare have seen their incomes slashed, the rich in this state have become even richer. Yet the administration in Leinster House refuses to introduce a wealth tax and refuses to nationalise our natural resources which would bring in hundreds of billions of euros that could be used to create a first class health service for all.
Under the seabed off the coast of Mayo, Sligo and Donegal lies oil and gas that rightfully belong to the Irish people. These valuable resources are worth at least €500 billion and in all likelihood far in excess of that. Yet, in one of the most shameful decisions ever made, Fianna Fáil signed away the rights to this vast wealth to private multinational oil giants like Shell, who have an appalling environmental and human rights record around the world.
But it is not too late to do something about this – all that is lacking is the political will. This wealth, could and should be used to reverse the savage welfare and pay cuts and to create jobs and stem the flow of young people emigrating. It should be used to eradicate the shameful blight of poverty that continues to increase. It should be used to, not just reverse the cuts at Letterkenny General Hospital and elsewhere, but to invest in creating efficient health and education services accessible and available to all based on need, as opposed to a person's wealth.
In short, it should be used to create a fairer society, one that cherishes all the children of the nation equally in line with the 1916 proclamation, with a better standard of living for all. So the next time you hear a Fianna Fáil politician telling you how these cuts are unavoidable and how hard decisions have to be made, dont hesitate in telling them that the decisions they need to make are to tax the wealthy, nationalise our natural resources and to fund our hospitals, not the banks. Your health is more important than keeping the wealthy political and business elite living in the luxurious lifestyles they are accustomed to.
The most recent General Purposes meeting of Sligo Borough Council on July 19 heard proposals to build yet another private hospital in Sligo. Planning permission has been sought to develop the hospital on a site just off the N4 at the Summerhill Roundabout on the approach to the town centre.
This is the third such proposal in recent times. Last year it was announced that plans are underway to build a €50 million private hospital right next to the existing Sligo General Hospital, while plans are also afoot to develop another such hospital at Carraroe.
Site of proposed new Private Hospital
All of this comes at a time when services at Sligo General Hospital are being slashed with further savage cutbacks already on their way. Last year seen a dramatic reduction in services, including the removal of vital Cancer services to Galway, the downgrading of the Stroke Unit, the shutdown of wards and the closure of 78 beds.
The figures for the number of people left waiting on trolleys in Sligo General Hospital betweeen January and May of this year stood at a staggering 876. Compared to the same period in 2007, the figure has more than doubled, up a massive increase of 419 people from 357.
As previously reported here, the Regional Director of Operations for HSE West John Hennessy confirmed in recent weeks that this year the Hospital was facing a budget deficit of €12 million and would mean new cutbacks which he admitted would impact on essential frontline services and would include yet more bed closures. Amongst the measures he indicated were on the way were a ban on purchasing equipment for the remainder of 2010 and the introduction of 5-day wards.
In the latest development at the hospital, staff were informed on Tuesday (July 27) that another eleven nursing positions were to go, a move that the INMO (Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation) have said will have a "devestating impact" on essential frontline services. According to the INMO spokesperson, the proposed cuts would decimate services at the hospital.
Impact trade union have said that among the other measures to be implemented by the HSE will be a further 60 bed closures as well a significant reduction in drug stock levels. The HSE are also planning to alter the fixed term contracts of 25 employees. According to IMPACT, in some instances this will result in workers having their weekly hours reduced from 35 hours to as little as eight hours per week
Reacting to the HSE's plans, IMPACT's Richy Carrothers has said that among the many areas affected will be essential radiology and oncology services. In relation to the cuts in workers hours he said that "a reduction in the number of working hours, on the scale proposed, would devastate the lives of these workers."
He added: “Reducing working time to just eight hours per week would mean that these workers, who are engaged in delivering vital services in the North West, could not earn a living wage, and would have to join the other reported 3000 public servants whose incomes are so low that they would have to claim family income support (FIS) from the state.”
Further north at Letterkenny General Hospital, the news appears to be even worse. It is believed that up to 120 jobs are to go as well as the closure of the hospitals orthapaedic ward and it's medical rehabilitation unit. Day services are also set to be reduced and all elective surgery is to be cancelled for the remainder of this year.
Responding to the latest proposed cutbacks and HSE nationwide figures which reveal that around 2000 nursing and midwifery posts have been lost since the introduction of the moratorium on recruiting nurses and midwives, the INMO described the current situation as "unsafe and unworkable". The end result of this ban on recruitment is"longer waiting times for public patients for services, overcrowded hospitals with less inpatient beds, overworked staff and increased risks to both patients and staff" according to the INMO.
At Belmullet District Hospital in County Mayo, the recruitment ban has resulted in ten of the hospitals forty beds lying idle as they have not the staff to cater for them.
Now the Dublin government, and Mary Harney in particular, are flagging up even more savage cuts in health care in the upcoming budget. According to Harney the budget cuts in Health will be "substantial" and have "serious consequences for the health service". This weeks Sunday Tribune reported that those cuts are likely to be as high as €700 million.
Once again, not only will patients suffer and indeed die from the reduction in quantity and quality of service, but Harney has also revealed that the HSE would be focusing on changes in work practices and conditions within in the health service. If the government get their way, it is front line staff, already dangerously overworked and overstretched due to previous cutbacks resulting in increased workloads, who will have their already inadequate and unacceptable working conditions worsen.
And we know our health service is in deep crisis, but it is a deliberately manufactured crisis, one created by deliberate political decisions taken by successive Fianna Fáil led administrations. What we have witnessed in recent years, and this blog has repeatedly reported on, has been the systematic stripping down and removal of services from Sligo General Hospital and other hospitals around the country.
This has not been accidental or forced upon the 26 county government by forces beyond their control. Make no mistake about it. This is ideology driven, pure and simple. It is part of a deliberate strategy of running down the public health care system and increasingly privatising all aspects of health care, including our hospitals.
Fianna Fáil and the Greens are using the current economic crisis, brought about by a combination of greed and corruption by the wealthy political and business elite as a smokescreen for implementing these cuts and their real agenda, which is about privatising the public healthcare system.
Despite the Dublin government's claims, there is no excuse for cutting funding and services for hospitals. The money to properly fund our health service is there, only they believe spending tens of billions on bank bailouts and up to €10 million on bringing the English Monarch here, are more important than spending on people's health - well on working people's health anyway.
At the time of last years budget, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan attempting to justify his savage cutbacks said that there was "no pot of gold that can be raided from the wealthy that can solve our difficulties”. What he said then was untrue and remains so today. The business elite in this country, who amassed billions of euros on the backs of workers throughout the so-called 'Celtic Tiger', remain wealthy individuals. Indeed, despite the economic recession, the richest people in this country have got even richer.
There are also hundreds of billions of euro worth of oil and gas lying under the seabed off the Irish coast, the rights to these resources shamefully given away to multi-national corporations such as Shell, by previous Fianna Fáil-led administrations. Those natural resources could and should be nationalised at the stroke of a pen.
Yet Lenihan and his cronies in the Fianna Fáil/Green Party coalition have taken deliberate political decisions not to nationalise these natural resources and not to make the rich pay. Instead they are content to reduce the incomes of low paid workers and welfare recipients and slash essential health and education services.
So is there a solution? Of course there is - but that solution is not in private hospitals. They have no place in the provision of health care. Private companies mean a hospitals priority is creating profit for shareholders, rather than patient care.
Private hospitals and private health care are also clearly not in the interests of working people, both those that use and need our health service and those that work within it. Ironically the site of this new proposed private hospital is located adjacent to St Joseph's private hospital, the owners of which, the Mount Carmel Medical Group, in the past week have claimed an inability to pay redundancy in the region of €400,000 as recommended by the Labour Court to their former workers.
St Josephs Hospital
What we currently have in this state is a form of medical apartheid. Those who can afford to pay, get their treatment when they seek it. Those who cannot afford to pay are forced to endure lengthy waiting times for treatment that they may need right away. The increased numbers of people waiting more than three months for a colonoscopy (see here for previous story on Colonoscopy waiting lists) is just one example of how an essential procedure that could save a persons life is denied for lengthy periods to those who cannot afford to go private. The end result of these delays for many people is quite often completely unnecessary suffering and death.
This two-tier apartheid system is completely unacceptable and needs to be dismantled immediately. Health care is a basic human right - not a privilege - that must be free, easily accessable by all and must be completely under public control. Patients must be treated based on their medical need, not their ability to pay as things currently stand.
According to the housing and homeless charity Focus Ireland, there are currently in the region of 100,000 households on local authority social housing waiting lists across the State, 5000 people who are homeless at any one time and more than 93,000 households receiving rent supplement due to difficulty in paying their rent within the private rented sector.
At the launch of their annual report published last month, they said that the Dublin government would fail to meet its public commitment to end homelessness by the end of this year. They also warned that the absence of more effective action by government would only result in a deepening of the housing and homeless crisis as the need for housing is now greater than ever.
Describing those statistics as "shocking", Focus Ireland Life President and Founder Sr. Stanislaus Kennedy said that “these dramatic increases in housing need have taken place at a time when we have been building more houses than ever before. How can it be that Ireland managed to build in the region of 250,000 homes that were not needed during the boom years yet we have still failed to provide enough homes for those who need them most?”
Questioning the governments priorities and lack of investment in housing, Sr Stanislaus asked "how can the government secure €50 billion to bail out the banks but at the same time cut welfare payments and continue to underinvest in housing and essential services?"
In county Donegal there are around 500 families on the housing waiting list, while here in County Sligo alone there are in the region of 1400 families waiting to be housed by both Sligo Borough and County Councils.
Last year, the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government introduced what is called the Social Housing Leasing Scheme. According to the Departments website, the supposed aim of the scheme is to expand the options "available to local authorities for the delivery of social housing. Properties will be leased from the private sector and used to accommodate households from local authority waiting lists. Leased properties will be allocated to tenants, in accordance with the local authorities allocations schemes".
Under the scheme Councils are entering into lease arrangements with property owners for periods of between 10 – 20 years. Among the benefits the developer will secure is that their properties will be tenanted, managed and maintained throughout all of this period by the local authority.
Even better news for the property owners is that the rent they receive from the council will be guaranteed for the entire time of the lease, and that rent will be an ‘inclusive’ one that includes all rates, charges and taxes that may apply to the leased property. The houses will also be provided unfurnished and on a ‘repair and insure’ basis where the Local Authority will be responsible for the insurance, maintenance and general repair of the properties.
However éirígí Sligeach activist Gerry Casey has dismissed the scheme as "no solution" to the housing crisis and "nothing more than another bail-out for developers".
Accusing Fianna Fáil and the Greens of ignoring the plight of the homeless and those on housing waiting lists, Casey said:
"This is yet another shameful bail-out of developers cynically dressed up as a measure to tackle the housing crisis. The only people to benefit will be those developers who will basically have their mortgages paid and have their investment maintained at tax payers expense for between 10 to 20 years before being handed back to them in pristine condition."
He added: "For those in need of housing, being allocated one of these properties by the Council to rent will not offer any long term solution. All it provides is uncertainty as families will have no security of tenure. Once the lease between the council and the developer runs out, the families and individuals in question will be put out of their home and once again be placed back on the waiting list and in need of housing. This is an unacceptable situation for families to be placed in."
"What families need, and what this administration has failed miserably to deliver, has been not just a house but more importantly a home. Security of tenure is central to that."
"This also makes the threats to punish those who refuse to take up the offer of one of these properties by having them lose their place on the waiting list all the more despicable. Housing is a right, not a privilege."
éirígí Tír Chonaill spokesperson Micheál Cholm MacGiolla Easbuig also attacked the scheme describing it as "scandalous" and "unjustifiable".
He said: “Having local councils basically paying the mortgages of property developers and maintaining their properties at tax payers expense for between ten or twenty years is a scandalous and unjustifiable move. The developers who built these houses, driven by greed and a belief that they could make themselves rich on the backs of working families by selling the properties at grossly over-inflated prices, have now been left unable to sell them as the economy collapsed.”
“Along with the policies of this government and the bankers, this unbridled greed by developers also contributed greatly to the current economic crisis. Now their Fianna Fáil cronies are rescuing them by means of this long term scheme which sees tax payers pay to protect these developers investments while the developer doesnt have to spend a cent or lift a finger.”
“Fianna Fáil are happy to see families lose their homes and hundreds of thousands of people lose their jobs. They are happy to impose savage cuts in income for low paid workers and welfare recipients. They are happy to see our young people emigrate once again and they are more than happy to shut hospitals and reduce and remove essential health services.”
He concluded: “However, when it comes to allowing developers take a loss or go out of business as a result of their greed, thats a step too far. Fianna Fáil insist that they must be protected, just like the banks. That's what this scheme is about. That's Fianna Fáil priorities for you.”
