“Thursday 27th February 2025 Daisy Hill and other Rural hospitals and health facilities will be the losers in a Three tier Hospital system, We must have a Equality impact Assessment carried out.”
Nicola Grant commenting on the Workers Party response to to “Hospitals -Creating A Network for Better Outcomes” said the Workers Party has made it clear in our response that we are not opposed to change within the Health Service. In fact, we have been demanding changes for well over a decade. The Party believes that we should use all new technological advances at our disposal for the benefit of patients and service users. We have no difficulty with regional specialists’ services which currently operate and deliver medical treatments across a range of medical conditions.
Nicola continued the Workers Party does have a problem with a number of the proposed changes and the very confused messages contained in the two documents, “The Health and Social Care NI -Three Year Plan” and “Hospitals-Creating A Network for Better Outcomes”. In the former there is a heavy emphasis on the use of the Third Sector and huge efficiency savings totaling £400 million, with anticipated savings coming through charging for prescriptions and home care services. Issues which are certainly not in the best interests of patients and services users, especially those who have suffered decades of systemic neglect and are living in areas of Health Inequalities, Poverty and Multiple Deprivations.
Better Outcomes claims to be designed to meet the ambition of delivering better clinical outcomes for patients and service users. It must be clear that there is a contradiction in this position and the “efficiency savings” and private sector outsourcing in The Three-Year Plan, research shows that the erosion of the principles of an NHS free at the point of demand, leads to poorer outcomes for NHS patients and even to the death of patients.
Nicola concluded that the Workers Party is opposed to the current two-tier healthcare system currently operating which facilitates those with money to jump the queue.because of the trend towards outsourcing and embracing the private sector
privatisation and fragmentation has already caused untold damage to patients and service users. But the proposals in the Better Hospitals Better Outcomes with the creation of three different categories of hospitals will create an even worse situation for those most in need. Rural areas and our hospital and healthcare systems will suffer the burden of these changes that are heavily weighted towards medical staff and not patients’ needs. While we recognise the importance of career progression, we believe that the only ‘vested interest’ in the NHS should be the patients. The people of Newry and other rural communities who will be negatively impacted by these proposals deserve to be treated with respect they are not second or third class citizens. There must be a full blown Equality Impact Assessment carried out before any final decisions are made. If the Department and the Minister are not willing to agree to that they should hold a public meeting at tell the citizens of Newry why .
ENDS
CLANRYE NEWS 