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Private healthcare is the problem
 Public healthcare - the only solution
Stephen Boyd

"The system is short 3,500 – 4,000 beds. It is as simple as that. Until they are provided, the health service can never work. You can commission endless useless reports, which nobody ever seems to read, public money can be squandered recklessly, e.g., PPARS, you can bring light and happiness to myriad developers in the private sector, yet the basic facilities to allow our people to be treated quickly and with dignity are lacking" - Cardiac surgeon Dr. Maurice Nelligan.

A constant stream of heartbreaking stories has filled the airwaves as patients and their families recount how the crisis in the health service is inflicting pain, suffering and unnecessary human misery on tens of thousands the length and breadth of the country.

The solution to this crisis is not to be found in any of the plans of the Minister for Trolleys, Mary Harney, nor with the senior management of the HSE or in the pathetic utterances from the so-called opposition of Fine Gael and Labour. All of these individuals and parties are committed to maintaining the two-tier health service and support the expansion of private healthcare.

Private healthcare is at the heart of the problems in the health service. The two-tier health system needs to be abolished not strengthened. 

In the last issue of The Socialist we printed a letter from "Rosie" aged 40 with two children who is now dying from bowel cancer because she had to wait for eight months for a colonoscopy. Why did she have to wait – because she didn’t have private health insurance! 

Unfortunately Rosie is not the only one whom this government has failed. Elderly patients in the James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Dublin, many of whom are incontinent, have not had access to hot water for washing for over a month!

In early February, up to 20 operations, including cancer surgery, were cancelled at St. James's hospital, Dublin, due to a shortage of beds in the intensive care unit. The Intensive Care Society of Ireland has said there is a "massive" shortage of intensive care beds across the state and that patients were being put at risk as a result.

A study carried out by the Adelaide Hospital Society shows that only 10% of the country’s healthcare costs are met by private health companies! The private health "industry" is a parasite living off the public health service. The same report outlined the costs of various options for providing better healthcare. The option it called the "Rolls Royce option" in which all patients would be provided with a quality of service equivalent to what private patients receive would cost only €2.1 billion extra a year. To provide the whole population with free access to GPs and free visits to A&E and overnight hospital stays would cost only €700 million a year. In other words, for the same amount of money that the government had left over from taxation at the end of 2006 (even after the budget) you could transform healthcare. 

So why are Bertie Ahern and Mary Harney not prepared to implement these type of changes? It’s simple – they are ideologically committed to private healthcare – to them profits are more important than the suffering of the sick and their families.

The Socialist Party believes as a step towards free comprehensive health care for all in a public health system we need:

- Emergency measures such as the immediate provision of extra hospital beds and staff to get the sick off trolleys and end the waiting lists.

- End the abuse of the public health system by private medicine.
n For health clinics in all areas to provide primary medical care free of charge.

- Profiteering in health care should be ended by scrapping the two-tier health service and nationalising the pharmaceutical industry to provide cheap generic drugs.
No compromise with Minister of Trolleys
 Support the nurses!
Susan Fitzgerald

Almost 40,000 nurses, members of the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA); have overwhelmingly voted for strike action that is due to commence at the end of February.

While no one takes the decision to strike lightly, for workers in the health and the emergency services sector industrial action is particularly difficult. Despite this the ballot for action was 96% in favour in the INO and 97% in the PNA. This is a clear demonstration of anger at years of ill treatment by the government.

The demands at the centre of this come down to the issue of parity with other health workers. Nurses and mid-wives work the longest hours and receive the lowest pay of all health professionals. The INO and PNA are looking for this wage anomaly to be eliminated and for the 10.6% pay increase to be paid retrospectively as well as a reduction in the working week to 35 hours.

This would be in line with other health workers such as those in the social care grades. This grade was introduced a number of years ago to facilitate gaps in areas such as child and adolescent services. Social care workers do a 35 hour week and earn up to €3,000 more than a skilled nurse or midwife. Some social care grades work under the authority of nurses but receive more money and work less hours.

John Gahan, a psychiatric nurse and member of the PNA, said in response to Bertie Ahern’s dismissal of nurses perceived inequality, "I’d like to ask the Taoiseach how he’d feel about his junior ministers working less hours and being paid more money than him, because that’s exactly what’s happening to qualified nurses".

Liam Doran General Secretary of the INO has agreed to speak on this issue at the Progressive Democrats conference this month. He said "… I agreed to the invitation with no hesitation. The only way we will get reform in the health service is to talk and I look forward to a frank exchange of views."

This is a waste of time, the frank exchange of views has already been had; health staff and the public have said enough is enough – Mary Harney and the government have said that the wage claim is not affordable and won’t be paid.

The state of the health service is the number one issue in Irish society. Time after time when this issue is discussed, no matter how bad people’s experience with accessing the health service has been, a constant refrain is that they couldn’t thank the nursing staff enough. Ahern has been coming under pressure from backbenchers (who are getting it in the neck from their constituents on this issue), that the government should compromise on nurses’ pay. This shows the extent of public support that exists for the nurses.

The INO and PNA would get huge support from the public if they were to link the question of fair play for nurses to the overall question of an adequately funded and administered public health service. The lunchtime rallies that are planned in the lead up to industrial action should be used to call on the public to actively show their support. Public support linked to determined industrial action can defeat the government on this issue. A victory for the nurses would be a victory for all working class people. It would also help undermine the myth that "social partnership" is the "only show in town" and put the idea of struggling for better wages and conditions back on the agenda.
Children's Hospital Controversy
 Defend Tallaght Children's Hospital
Cllr. Mick Murphy

The controversy that has erupted over the siting of the National Children’s Hospital has highlighted central flaws in the health system. Throughout the whole process, health workers and patients have been outside of the decision making process.

The recommendation to create one central children’s hospital was made by a group of professional consultants. The decision for it to be in the Mater was made by a joint task force of 11 people, none of whom were paediatricians! There is a strong case for one central national children’s hospital to deal with what are known as tertiary cases. These are the most complex procedures, which require a high degree of specialisation.

However, both reports simply assume that a tertiary children’s hospital in Dublin means that the other secondary children’s hospitals like Tallaght, which served 30,000 children last year, should be closed. This is purely a resources argument, an attempt to implement cutbacks to save money and should be rejected by all.

The political interference by Bertie Ahern in the process of choosing the location of the children’s hospital has become clearer. He wrote a letter to Micheal Martin in September 2002, saying that "…the intention is to move Temple Street onto the Mater campus and to provide a state-of-the-art children’s hospital for North Dublin and indeed the country"! The decision making process of the Task Group was anything but clear and transparent, with no rating of the different hospitals. We call for an immediate speedy reassessment of the merits of the different sites for the children’s hospital by representatives of patients and health workers. Regardless of where the National Children’s Hospital is sited, the children’s wards in the other hospitals must be maintained.

Candidates from all parties in Dublin South West have claimed that they will save the children’s hospital. Any one of them could be in power when the time comes in four years to shut down the hospital. Pressure should be put on them in the run up to the general election to pledge to defend the children’s hospital. However, none of these parties can be trusted, and a movement of people in the area and health workers should be built to stop the government’s plans in their tracks!