Following the resignation of the Health Minister Ms Grant said what is happening because of the fixation the Department of Health has with the reconfiguration of our health and social care services, and the total lack of transparency was all very predictable. The Workers party in all our submissions to the consultation documents warned that the lack of buy in from patients and service users was galvanising the public in each of the areas affected to protest and organise against the proposals to remove emergency surgery and other services from local hospitals.
Daisy Hill Hospital has a highly active SOS committee and are challenging the proposed down grade of their hospital removal of other facilities in the area which provides essential services which should be accessible for rural communities. The lack of meaningful discussion with communities is an outrage the public meeting held to discuss the impact these changes would have on our local and much needed hospital did not even take place in Newry, yet another reminder that service users and patients and their family’s opinions don’t really count.
The Workers Party said the piecemeal approach adopted by all those involved in advancing the restructuring of services is once again leading to widespread confusion and uncertainty. Ms Grant said we have seen this happen with all the earlier transformations of health and social care services, each one and there have been many ended up making the service worse.
Despite all the talk of waiting lists and the hundreds and millions poured into the private sector to deal with them, we still have the highest and longest waiting lists across the UK. Yet, our politicians and senior managers in leadership positions continue to make the same mistakes by doing exactly the things that have never worked in the past and will not work now.
Those who are leading the charge for these changes must clearly be tone deaf to all the opposition across all the trusts, the people are speaking loudly and clearly, and the message is hands of our local hospitals. No evidence has been produced that these changes would provide quality healthcare in fact the opposite is true. None of the ramifications on patients or staff seem to have been considered, nor has the lack of ambulance crews and vehicles, or the lack of public transport, and the other infrastructures needed.
Ms Grant said these proposals are being organised around vested interests at trust, department, and political leadership. They are purely a money saving exercise which is balancing the books on the backs of staff and service users.
The Workers Party will stand shoulder to shoulder with all those who are engaged in the struggle to save the national health service. It is time for a new minister and a new and transparent approach to delivering quality health care and dealing with the major health inequalities that are so prevalent in working class areas. It is time for a cross-cutting approach that ignores the echo chamber that is driving these proposals, and involve, patients, trade unions, the local communities and political parties across the board, it is time for candour and transparency and a return to the principles of the national health service. Accessible services free and the point of use and the interests of the patient must come first not the convenience of medical staff or management.
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CLANRYE NEWS 