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Privatising the Health Service

category sligo | consumer issues | opinion/analysis author Friday April 06, 2007 13:15author by Union member Report this post to the editors

Sligo Borough Council voted down a motion condemning the governments policy which will tax aid speculators to build a private hospital on public land beside Sligo General Hospital. This is the first Council to endorse what amounts to the beginning of the privatisation of the Health Service.

Sligo Borough Council surely holds the title of being the most right wing assembly in Ireland, and that includes Ballymena. To add to it's litany of either privatising services or handing over responsibility for things such as housing to charities to look after, we now have a vote by the Council which endorses the policy of privatisation and which will copperfasten the two tier health system. It will simply mean that in future, the quality and quantity of health care that you get will depend entirely on how much money you have.
There is no way that the people of Sligo favour the policy of privatisation of health and as a health worker, I fear greatly for the future. Workers can see at first hand that private patients get better treatment and we all want this to stop. The private hospital will only cover up discrimination.
The council must discuss this matter again and undo this decision which is a slur on the good people of Sligo

author by ned the redpublication date Fri Apr 06, 2007 19:28author address author phone Report this post to the editors

This is an outrage but not surprising.I beleive the new private hospital will have no operating theatre,they will use the theatres in sligo general and no doubt wii be given first preference over public patients.Right wing monetarist parties are responsible for this and when Fianna Fail and the Blueshirt Coalitionists come knocking on peoples doors begging votes in the upcoming election they will be told in no uncertain terms that this is not Boston and that in this Country People matter and we demand a universal health system available to everbody not just the rich and privileged.

author by Cowardly Tom - Also sacked by ITGWUpublication date Fri Apr 06, 2007 22:26author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Dear Ned the Red, your anger is understandable at privatisation. BUT you seem surprised that the so-called Health Service will be run for Profit. PROFIT gleaned from the working class.

As you well know, the Wealthy pay nothing and PAYE workers pay THEIR bills.

The only way to stop this is for the working class to have a Trade Union Movement which is accountable to no-one but its members.

The trade unions down there in the South are a joke. It's a toss up who is more corrupt, them or ITGWU when it flourished in Belfast.

Jack 'OConnor, Joe O'Flynn and the rest of the well paid shower of collaborators must decide whose side they're on.

As has been proved in Belfast, when you get a Trade Union which protects the employer's from the workers and not the other way around, WORKERS LIVES become secondary to PROFIT.

From up here in the North and with what little I know - ie, that the health service unions will not listen to SIPTU who are against the strikes and have made their own pay demands.

GOOD ON THEM. Siptu covers up CORRUPTION and will SELL THEM OUT.

author by Goblinpublication date Sat Apr 07, 2007 13:27author address author phone Report this post to the editors

This privatisation process had been a PD driven initiative ever since they got into government. They are intentionally wrecking the Health Service through improper funding and mismanagement, will quote this failure as a legacy of civil service incompetence and then call the Private Sector in to save it.

There are certain services where making a profit should not even to considered in the equation. Health is one of them.

It seems while we were all watching the Mater, the sneaky bastards on Sligo county council have opened the floodgates for money grabbing parasites to profit off the sick.

What is most worrying is that there are no elected PDs in Sligo. Have FF really gone that far to the right? Who on the council voted for this? Why are there no protests at the hospital?

author by Union memberpublication date Sun Apr 08, 2007 09:56author address author phone Report this post to the editors

From what information we have so far, the motion condemning privatisation and the building of a private hospital on the grounds of Sligo General (public property) was voted down by the 4 FF members. Not sure how that happened as the council has 12 members. It may be that some abstained. Either way it was a bad day for the Council and for FF. There is no PD elected in Sligo, anywhere, so why are we getting PD policy shoved down our throats?At least the people of Sligo will now have no doubt that the Health Service is not safe in the hands of FF.

author by AStudent Dr.publication date Mon Apr 09, 2007 12:36author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Will the FF party come out straight and explain what they would do if re-elected. Do they agree that the existance of a private sector within the Health Service creates and maintains inequality and that aiding speculators to build private hospitals on puiblic lands with huge tax incentives will only make matters infinitely worse? Do they intend to put in place a Health Service that has equal access to all whether privately insured or not?
If they refuse to make clear what they would do, I and my colleagues will not be voting for the FF candidate here in Sligo, who happens to be also a doctor and we expect a more caring line from him then is now apparent.

author by Nurse supporterpublication date Mon Apr 09, 2007 13:13author address author phone Report this post to the editors


Labour Party support the basics of a private health system.
They support universal health insurance.

Is there one political party dedicated to uprooting the reward and
crony system which has been rooted in ireland for generations
which is dedicated to the accquisition of welath of both a personal
and institutional nature?

FF/PD have not planned for the future their economy is based on the
flimsiest premises:

The school system is dedicated to the knowledge economy.
The pensions system is based in capital accquisition (it bubbles, millions have
been wiped off the stock market)
The property market has made millionaires out of ordinary people, but the
necessary structures of state resources are sold to the multis.

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