The Socialist (Jan 2008) - WARNING! More Health Cuts in 2008

WARNING!
More Health Cuts in 2008

Stephen Boyd

According to the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO), there were 365 patients on trolleys on 8 January. Mary Harney claimed she would solve the crisis in the country’s A&E departments, but as this figure shows the crisis has worsened.

It has gotten worse because the government has done nothing to deal with the core problems. They have done nothing to provide the thousands of acute beds that are needed. Nothing to provide extra resources for patients who need long term high dependency care. They have done nothing to provide extra resources for the predictable annual increase in demand for hospital services with the onset of winter and of course exasperated and seriously worsened the situation by imposing €250 million in cuts in the last few months of 2007.

Now there is a real possibility of more health cuts this year. The Irish Hospital Consultants Association has stated that the HSE’s national service plan only provides for the same number of patients in 2008 as it planned for at the start of 2007. Yet the HSE ended up treating more patients than it had planned for last year, which was one of the factors which led to it introducing cutbacks in spending! No account has been made for the growth in population and the HSE expects outpatient attendances to fall by 300,000 this year. This is incredible when you consider that there are tens of thousands of patients on waiting lists, some for up to eight years, for outpatient treatment!

It seems that we can expect no significant changes for the better in the health service because the government is not committed to providing the necessary resources to ensure that the public health service can function and provide for the needs of the sick.

Will a national cervical cancer screening programme be introduced this year? Or will breastcheck be rolled out to the 11 counties which still don’t have it? No, instead we will see the beginning of the construction of private hospitals co-located on public land as Fianna Fail and Mary Harney begin to seriously shift healthcare towards the private sector, while they continue to deliberately rundown public healthcare.

Professor Brendan Drumm, the highly paid HSE chief executive has made it clear that there will be no extra funds for healthcare this year. He stated in the Irish Times 8 January, “All funding will be allocated at the start of the year, which removes any expectation that more funding will be available later in the year”. But hospitals are already struggling to deliver even the most basic of services, yet health funding was increased in the budget by the equivalent of only six days health spending!

Prof. John Crown, consultant oncologist at St Vincent’s Hospital stated “I think in 2008 the health service is going to progress from meltdown to freefall… I think the result is going to be that public patients are going to find themselves squeezed and we are going to see a contraction of access due to budgetary constraints”.

Unfortunately, Prof. Crown will be proven correct as the right wing Fianna Fail, Green and PD government will cut health spending even more this year as the economy slides further into decline.

The only way we are going to get a free national health service to provide for everyone’s needs is if we fight for it and 2008 will be the year when more people become involved in campaigning for better public health care.

Health Service Crisis
Which way forward?

Michael Murphy

2007 WILL be remembered by many people for the endless crises in the health service. Unfortunately 2008 has started with more of the same.

Newspaper stories in the days after Christmas included the expose of lengthy waiting lists for neurology patients and the fact that private cancer patients are being treated in public hospitals, while those with no private insurance are left waiting. This further illustrated the ongoing mess that Mary Harney and Bertie Ahern are making of this crucial service.

A young cystic fibrosis sufferer Orla Tinsley, writing in the Irish Times (9/1/2008), outlined the incredible situation facing sufferers of this terrible disease who are denied a specialised unit in Ireland - necessary because of the sensitivity of patients to infection. This situation persists despite the very high mortality rate from this disease here, which is higher than Northern Ireland, Britain and the US. Her story just adds to the shameful role of the government and is another example of the frustration of patients suffering various illnesses.

The Socialist Party believes the time has come for a national health crisis to be declared and a campaign of people power to end the crisis to be launched. The thousands of people who participated in protests and demonstrations last year from Letterkenny to Westport to Ennis to Tralee and beyond, illustrate the anger of people all over the country.

These campaigns and protests have shown the way. However it is necessary to link all these groups and campaigns together to form a national campaign. This campaign should be led by the health unions to link the specific issues affecting patients and their families to the issues affecting nurses, doctors and other workers in the health system.

The health unions should call national and regional demonstrations to launch such a campaign. It is clear from the thousands who marched in the course of 2007 that any such campaign would get a tremendous response. The last time the unions were forced to organise mass action was over the attacks on workers’ conditions at Irish Ferries. Over 100,000 workers responded to the call for action. The anger felt by many people on health could see a similar response. This type of campaign could force the government to back off on its privatisation agenda of handing crucial parts of our health service over to wealthy individuals to profit from.It would also force the government to invest the necessary money, resources and workers to build a real world class public health system.

The Socialist Party will host a public forum in Wynns Hotel on Tuesday, 29 January, at 8pm to discuss the way forward for the health service and outline ideas of the type of campaign that we feel is necessary to improve the health service. Along with former Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins, Consultant Oncologist, John Crown and Orla Hardiman, a Consultant Neurologist and co-coordinator of Doctors for a Better Public Health Service, will both speak at the meeting outlining their views on the health service and how problems could be addressed. The meeting will also be addressed by a nurse and other speakers.

Health Service Crisis
March to defend Tallaght Hospital

Paul Murphy

The Tallaght Hospital Action Group has called for a demonstration at 1pm on 29 March to defend Tallaght Hospital. The hospital is only open ten years, but has the busiest casualty ward in the country, dealing with 78,000 people per year.

However, if the government gets away with its attacks on Tallaght, removing the Children’s Hospital and cancer ward, the future of the hospital itself is in doubt.

The hospital was originally planned to have 750 beds and over 100 consultants. Now, it has only 521 beds and 74 consultants. But if the government succeeds in shutting the Children’s Hospital and removing cancer services, by 2012 Tallaght will be less than half of its originally planned size with only 378 beds and 38 consultants! That would make it the second smallest hospital in Dublin and a prime target for further attacks.

The nature of Mary Harney’s co-location plans are also starkly revealed by the plans for Tallaght. While the public hospital is consciously being downgraded, the plans for building a parasitic private hospital on the public land are going ahead at full speed. There are two private firms interested in getting their hands on this land, and leeching off the public hospital to enrich themselves.

Between now and the end of March, we will be working hard to build the campaign against Harney’s plans. Building an active campaign in the local community with links to health workers is the one thing that can stop Harney in her tracks. To do that, as many people as possible need to become involved in the campaign. If you can help out, contact the campaign at thag@dublin.ie.