Ard Fheis 2008 - Sláinte - Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD
Published: 1 March, 2008
On behalf of the Ard Chomairle I urge your support for motion 161 which reaffirms Sinn Fein's determination to achieve excellence and equality in healthcare.
As we meet at our 2008 Ard Fheis, the Health Service Executive, under the direction of Health Minister Mary Harney and her Fianna Fáil and Green colleagues in Cabinet, is implementing a series of so-called 'savings' across health services in this State. These cuts are a throwback to the dark days of the 1980s and have seen the tightening of the recruitment ban, reduction in services in many hospitals and removal of entire services from others. This is the roll-out of Minister Harney's strategy, carefully concealed from the people during last year's General Election. It is affecting the care of patients as we speak and it has more to do with book-keeping than life-saving.
In my own constituency of Cavan/Monaghan the latest announced cutback is the turning away of all but urgent or emergency child and adolescent psychiatric referrals from GPs. This is but one example of cuts large and small across this State and it is targeting the most vulnerable of children. Equally vulnerable are homeless people and we learned also this week that the HSE is freezing funding for new homeless services.
The cuts fit in with the centralization and privatization agenda of the Government and the HSE. If fully implemented over-centralisation will devastate hospital services, closing existing A&E units in nearly every county with further loss of services to follow.
We saw last autumn the scandal of misdiagnosis of women with cancer in the Midlands. Now cancer services are going from hospitals across the State in the name of centralization but without adequate facilities to replace them.
Susie Long did not have private health insurance and as a result she had to wait seven months for a test to see if see had cancer. It was too late for Susie and she died last October. Before she died she summed up the position simply and clearly when she said:
"I believe that people should be seen on the basis of how ill they are, of their symptoms, not on how much money they have."
We remember Susie and the many others like her who have died as a result of the scandalous inequality in our health services. And we pledge to end that inequality and create a truly equitable health service.
Despite widespread opposition the Government has ploughed on with its private for-profit hospital co-location scheme, rewarding the private healthcare business with tax breaks and public lands. At the same time in Budget 2008 the Government failed to extend eligibility for the medical card.
It is not only hospital services that are in crisis. Primary care services are at full stretch and we now have a worsening shortage of general practitioners.
This Government has also grossly mishandled the pharmacy dispute. We call on them to amend competition legislation, allow negotiations to take place and ensure continuity of supply of medicines for all who need them as well as better value for money in drugs purchases for the health system.
This past week we heard the testimony of parents whose deceased children had organs removed without the consent of their parents. The grief of the parents was compounded by a cover-up. But it has been compounded further by the continuing refusal of the Government to publish the report of the Dunne Inquiry into Organ Retention. We demand its immediate publication.
Sinn Féin joins with patients, with workers in the health services, with advocacy groups and with local communities everywhere in demanding equality and excellence in healthcare. We want to replace two-tier health inequality with a single-tier, universal public healthcare system with equal access for all based on need and need alone. That is our right and we will have it.
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