Call for Waterford council to support 'All-Ireland health service'

At a socially distanced demonstration outside the HSE building in Waterford on Wednesday, June 3, members of People Before Profit joined with Trade Union members in calling on the Waterford City and County Council to support the Campaign for an All Ireland National Health Service.

Úna Dunphy of PBP stated that Covid-19 showed us our existing health services are "grossly inadequate, and need radical transformation."

"Insufficient hospital bed capacity, too few nurses and healthcare workers, the lack of PPE, and the dangerous lack of capacity and resources for testing and contact tracing, meant that measures were taken that would have been unthinkable before the outbreak.  

"Inadequate regulation and staffing in care homes, along with horrifying numbers of fatalities, especially among the elderly and vulnerable, saw the HSE budget expanded by €1 billion, the lifting of the embargo on the employment of nurses and other staff, and the renting of facilities in private hospitals at a cost to the taxpayer of more than €100 million a month," he continued.

"The pandemic showed that the HSE, following years of disinvestment by successive Governments led by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, does not have the capacity to respond to a major health crisis, without having to pay millions to businessmen for access to private hospitals.

"Ireland needs a public Health Service we can trust, not a collection of private medical businesses we can’t afford. 

"The measures taken show that a comprehensive public health service is both possible and necessary. The public control of private hospitals should be made permanent as a first step to the development of a Health Service fit for the needs of our population for the 21st century. The Campaign for an All Ireland National Health Service is based on the following principles:

·         Private hospitals, requisitioned during the crisis, should be nationalised

·         The exclusion of private practice and fees from public hospitals

·         Public ownership and control of voluntary hospitals and the National Maternity Hospital

·         Permanent public sector contracts to be offered to junior doctors in training

·         Reward payments and an enhanced career structure for nurses and health  care workers

·         Publically-funded Primary Care that includes mental health support, physiotherapy, speech therapy etc.

·         An integrated Health and Social Care service

·         A publically established system to regulate access to and pricing of medicines

"After this pandemic crisis, there are likely to be others. There will be a backlog of untreated patients which will put greater strain on our health services, North and South. In this situation, the creation of an All Ireland National Health Service is more urgent than ever, and we call on the WCCC to support the Campaign. Post Covid-19, there can be no going back," Una concluded.