Roscommon Protest against Hospital Cutbacks

Tomorrow morning (Saturday August 14), a demonstration against proposed HSE (Health Service Executive) cutbacks at Roscommon County Hospital is to take place.  The protest march, organised by the Roscommon Health Action Committee (HAC) is to commence at the Hyde Centre in Roscommon town at 11am tomorrow morning and will proceed from there to the hospital itself, where a ‘Hands Around Our Hospital Protest’ will take place.

Like other hospitals throughout the region, Roscommon's has already suffered severe cutbacks and is bracing itself for more in the imminent future, including the possible closure of the hospital completely.

Roscommon County Hospital

A report commissioned earlier this year by the HSE West recommended the closure of the hospital.  Ironically, it transpires that the cost of having that report commissioned cost the HSE a massive €90,000, money which IMPACT Trade Union say could have kept 12 nurses or clerical staff employed from now until the end of the year.

Urging people throughout the West and Midlands to support Saturday's march, éirígí activist Gerry Casey said that there must be no compromise or backing down by the Unions in relation to the proposed cutbacks in the HSE West region.

Casey said:  "What is at stake here is of vital importance for future generations.  The planned cutbacks are not about reducing services or even closing hospitals due to necessity.  It is part of a planned strategy by the HSE, on behalf of the Fianna Fáil /Green party coalition to run down the public health service in order to pave the way for the privatisation of our hospitals and our health care system."

He added:  "The current health system we have is a medical form of apartheid where the wealthy get treated whenever they want, while those reliant on the public health service have to join ever lenghtening queues to receive essential treatment.  Such a system ensures that people suffer needlessly and die needlessly."  

"The release this week by the Irish Cancer Society (ICS) of figures showing the continued increase in the numbers waiting more than three months for a potentially life saving colonoscopy, is yet more evidence of the danger to life posed by the HSE and this administrations health policies.  People should be under no illusion.  Lives have been lost as a result of cutbacks and even more will be lost if they get to impose new cutbacks"

Casey continued:  "Mary Harney and her cronies in government peddle the lie that they have not the finance to properly fund our health service and that cutbacks are unavoidable.   But the bottom line is, as éirígí have repeatedly pointed out, that none of these cutbacks are in any way necessary.  Imposition of a wealth tax, the nationalisation of our natural resources and the proper distribution of the current finances at the governments disposal, would allow not just for a halt to any cutbacks, but also for a reversal of those already imposed and more importantly for proper new investment to be made to create an efficient public service available to all, based solely on medical need and not based on ability to pay." 

"Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have pumped tens of billions of euros into bailing out the banks and developers.  This is money that could have been used to fund our hospitals and invest in their future.  Given the choice of protecting the health and welfare of patients who rely on the public health care system or protecting the excessive living standards of the wealthy political and business elite, the coalition chose the latter."

"This is a fight that we cannot afford to lose.  There can be and must be no compromise or 'deals' on these cutbacks particularly from the leadership of the Trade Unions within the health service.  Reducing the cutbacks is not a solution - only the scrapping and reversal of cutbacks is acceptable.   Previous 'deals' have led us to this point.  As the INMO (Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation) General secretary pointed out recently: 'The INMO voted against the Croke Park proposals primarily on the basis that they require 6,000 posts to be taken out of our health service in a haphazard, uncontrolled and unplanned manner with scant regard for the impact upon patients and their needs and requirements.  We are now seeing the real impact of this flawed approach.'"

Casey concluded:  "Support tomorrows (Saturday August 14) march and rally in Roscommon town and all similar protests against the proposed cutbacks.  Send the message to Leinster House - Fund our Hospitals, Not the Banks."

Protest against Hospital Cuts - Letterkenny Sat Aug 7

As people will already be aware, the Health Service Executive (HSE), on behalf of their political masters in Leinster House, are preparing to cut staff numbers and slash services at hospitals throughout the country.  This includes both Letterkenny and Sligo General Hospitals here in the north west.  The future of other smaller units such as Lifford Community Hospital and the Sheil hospital in Ballyshannon are also under threat.

As this blog has regularly highlighted (click here for most recent article) the cutbacks already imposed on our hospitals and health service in general, have caused immense suffering and hardship to patients. According to the main nursing union, the INMO "the level of cuts, currently being imposed upon our public health service, are compromising patient care, lowering standards and greatly increasing the clinical risk to patients." 

Following their carrying out of a comprhensive review of the entire Health Service, the INMO said that they discovered the following:

• Over 1,500 public beds are closed including beds in hospitals designated as Centres of Excellence resulting in longer waiting time for essential treatment

• Very high levels of A&E overcrowding with over 300 people on trolleys, awaiting a bed, on nine days in July as compared to one in July 2009

• Primary care services being curtailed, or suspended indefinitely, due to a shortage of nursing staff 

• Intellectual disability services being curtailed, suspended or eliminated altogether, again due to the shortage of human or financial resources; and 

• Frontline staff, in nursing, midwifery and other support grades, not being replaced resulting in frontline direct patient care services being compromised.

Letterkenny General Hospital

Amongst the latest cuts planned by the HSE for Letterkenny General Hospital are believed to be a plan to cut the working hours of 94 members of staff on fixed term contracts by eight hours each.  Such cutbacks will result in a devestating loss of income for these workers, particularly those who are only part-time.

What these cutbacks will mean for patients are yet more operating theatre and bed closures, more people left lying on trolleys, cancelled operations, longer waiting lists and unnecessary  and increased suffering and even deaths.  

 

Previous protest rally against threatened closure of Lifford Hospital

The INMO General Secretary, Liam Doran has claimed that the cuts being implemented are being "imposed in a manner which is unsafe" and are a result of the Croke Park Agreement between the Dublin government and ICTU on public pay reform.

Speaking on Tuesday he said that patients  "are entitled to quality assured services when they need them and public patients cannot be treated like second class citizens when compared to those who can afford private healthcare at this time”. 

He added:  “The INMO voted against the Croke Park proposals primarily on the basis that they require 6,000 posts to be taken out of our health service in a haphazard, uncontrolled and unplanned manner with scant regard for the impact upon patients and their needs and requirements.  We are now seeing the real impact of this flawed approach."

Sligo General Hospital

And while people are rightly horrified at these latest plans to cut services in our hospitals, even worse is set to follow.  In the upcoming budget, Health Minister Mary Harney is seeking a further cut of €600 million off the health budget.  Unless they are forced to halt these cutbacks and actually invest in creating an efficient first class health service for all, we will very soon be left no public health service at all.

This Saturday (August 7) a march and rally has been organised in Letterkenny, Co.Donegal to protest against the HSE's proposed cutbacks.  The march, which will commence from the Station roundabout in the town at 12 midday and proceed to the hospital, has been organised by the newly formed Save Donegal Health Services campaign group.  


The group is comprised of the three main health care trade unions, INMO, SIPTU and IMPACT.  Other groups involved include the Irish Kidney Association, Donegal Action Cancer Campaign, Friends of Letterkenny General Hospital, Co-operating for Cancer Care North West and the General Voice of Older People Donegal.

Health Cuts Protest Lifford

éirígí are urging people throughout the north west to attend Saturday's protest march in large numbers.  The HSE and their political masters in Leinster House need to realise and to see that as a community we are sick and tired of the savage cuts being imposed on us, at the same time as they bail out the banks to the tune of tens of billions of euro and as they feather their own nests and that of that of the wealthy business elite.

The people of the north west and the people of Ireland deserve a first class public health service properly funded, resourced and staffed.  It is our right, not some privilege to be dispensed at the discretion of overpaid and uncaring politicians who are intent on dismantling it and privatising it in order to make profits for their cronies within the business sector.  

Once again, the message is clear. Fund our hospitals, not the banks.

Colonoscopy waiting list times placing lives needlessly at risk

Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer in Ireland, with more than 50 per cent of bowel cancer patients diagnosed with the more advanced forms of the disease, stages 3 and 4. The unfortunate reality is that less than 5 per cent of patients with stage 4 bowel cancer survive more than four years. As with many forms of cancer, early detection is vital, and can mean the difference between life and death.

According to the Irish Cancer Society (ICS) a colonoscopy has been proven to be the most effective method to diagnose the disease. The ICS insist this procedure needs to be carried out between four and six weeks after referral. Indeed, in a letter back in December 2008, Health Minister Mary Harney herself told the HSE she wanted all people awaiting colonoscopies to be seen within one month.

Information provided by hospitals to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), which manages public hospital waiting lists reveal that there are now 951 people in the 26-counties waiting longer than three months for a colonoscopy. That is an increase of 229 people on the waiting list from September 2009.

The information collated by the NPTF reveals that the figures for the waiting list at Sligo General Hospital has increased to 99 compared to 74 in March and 44 back in December. Galway University Hospital has also seen an increase of 70 percent with 106 patients now waiting for a colonoscopy, up from 62 patients in March, while the figures for Letterkenny General Hospital have jumped to 56, increasing from 43 in March and from 25 in December. The Beaumont Hospital in Dublin has gone from 66 to 131, a massive 98 percent increase. This is up from just 9 people on their waiting list back in December of last year.


The Irish Cancer Society (ICS) have described the increases across the majority of hospitals as very worrying. Kathleen O’Meara, Head of Advocacy and Communications at the ICS, said they were “seriously concerned to see that the total number of people waiting has increased by over 30 percent in just over six months.”

She also expressed concern over the impact these ever increasing waiting lists would have on the screening programme which is due to commence in 2012. According to Ms O'Meara “unless the problem of waiting lists is tackled in advance of screening being delivered, we are not sure that we can have full confidence in the ability of our hospital system to deliver screening while not impacting symptomatic services at the same time.”

This is all par for the course for an administration that has always shown contempt for the lives and well being of the people they claim to represent and govern on behalf of.

Health services have been slashed right across the board in recent years, with more cutbacks planned. We have seen the postponement in recent years of the cervical cancer vaccine for young girls which is only now being rolled out. Cut-backs in home help have also caused enormous hardship and anguish for elderly and ill people right across the country, as this service provided a lifeline for many vulnerable people in need of assistance. Now it is believed that the HSE are looking at closing or limiting the opening hours of accident and emergency units in order to cut the health budget even further.

Here in the north-west alone, we have seen the removal of 72 beds from Sligo General Hospital and the closure of wards. The Hospital is seriously understaffed with most wards operating with two to three nurses less than they require, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).

Cancer services were also removed last year to Galway University hospital which is unable to cope with the increased workload, as campaigners against the move accurately predicted. There was also a delay of ten years in bringing the breast screening service BreastCheck to the north-west. Now following its eventual arrival last year, it is short staffed, resulting in even further delays in women receiving their appointments for what is, like a colonoscopy, a potentially life saving procedure.

Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar is facing imminent cutbacks of €9 million and the closure of a male surgical ward and possibly more. Other smaller hospitals in the region are also suffering ward closures, staff reductions and reductions in services. In County Leitrim, and indeed a number of other counties around the state, it was recently revealed that they shamefully have no dedicated therapeutic services for children who suffer sexual abuse.

Mary Harney and her cabinet colleagues regularly talked about the need for prioritising. In fairness, she has kept her word. Her priority and that of her government colleagues is to protect the wealthy political and business elite and continue their greed before need and privatisation agenda at the expense of the working people and those most in need in this state.

Given the choice between creating and funding a first class health service freely and easily accessible to all, or bailing out the banks, they have chosen to bail out the banks. If people die as a result of their decisions, which they undoubtably have and will continue to, they are viewed as merely “collateral damage” in their ideological quest for profit and the attainment of ever increasing wealth.

Reacting to these latest figures, éirígí Sligeach activist Gerry Casey condemned the HSE and their political masters, described these lenghty waiting lists as “unacceptable” and “placing lives needlessly at risk”.

Casey said: "éirígí are extremely concerned at the continuing high numbers waiting more than three months to receive potentially life saving colonoscopy testing. The fact that an increasing number of patients referred to Sligo General and other hospitals around the state have to endure such a lengthy delay for their colonoscopy is totally unacceptable."

"Once again, the Dublin government and the HSE seem intent on needlessly putting people's lives at risk by not providing efficient and proven measures to detect and prevent the deaths of Irish citizens from various forms of cancer. As waiting lists and delays increase, as is currently happening, lives will inevitably be lost as a result of this debacle."

Casey concluded: "There is no excuse for people having to wait months for a procedure that could save their lives and which should happen within weeks of referral. It is a matter of deliberate political decisions being taken by this administration who have repeatedly shown that they care little whether working class people suffer unnecessarily or even die unnecessarily."