Government slammed for undelivered health promises

BY JOANNE CORCORAN

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin

The government's failure to provide a quality health service for all was the dominant theme of this year's health, special needs and childcare debate. Opening the session, Sinn Féin Dáil group leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD said that tax paying workers deserve an equitable and efficient delivery of health services, but that the Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney disagreed.

"Let's not forget that Minister Harney took over the Department of Health and Children with great fanfare last September, promising to urgently address the scandalous situation in Accident and Emergency units," he said. "The Minister acted as if it was her first day in the Dáil and as if she did not share collective responsibility for this crisis over the previous seven years. The situation is now no different from when she took over, in fact it is arguably worse. It is a shame and a disgrace that elderly people who have worked all their lives and paid tax and social insurance to build up our public services now find themselves, in this day and age, lying on trolleys and chairs in hospital corridors."

Ó Caoláin said plans for the development of primary care have been shelved.

"The renegotiation of the consultants' contract to ensure greater equity for public patients in our hospitals is more than two years overdue," he added. "And since the current Fianna Fáil/PD Coalition was re-established in 2002 65,000 fewer people have medical cards."

Ó Caoláin slammed the waiting lists in hospitals throughout the 26 Counties and said Sinn Féin would continue to work against what he called the "creeping privatisation of the health system".

John O' Dowd

Upper Bann MLA John O'Dowd, speaking to motion 204, which called for greater cooperation between health services in the Six and 26 Counties, said there were many problems across our health services and many benefits which could accrue from "creating economies of scale, increasing capacity, supporting the development of regional centres, increasing access to services and deepening the available pool of expertise".

He praised the work of CAWT, the cross border body of health boards, but said a high level joint working group in health could do so much more.

Dublin TD Séan Crowe said that the crisis in the Southern health system could be avoided.

He added that he was shocked when the Irish Nurses Organisation revealed recently that there were 422 people waiting in A&E departments across the country for beds.

"Many of the remedies are in the government's own health strategy, which it has failed to implement," he said.

Imelda Munster

Imelda Munster from Drogheda said that staff in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Louth were stretched to breaking point. She described how recently a mother had taken her daughter there, only to be told she would be waiting five hours to be seen.

"She crossed the border to Newry and was seen in 90 minutes," Munster said.

Cllrs John Dwyer from Wexford and David Cullinane from Waterford both addressed the lack of cancer care facilities in the southeast.

"Basically, cancer sufferers in the southeast have to choose between paying for private services where they live or travelling to Dublin or Cork," Dwyer said. "The old adage, 'money talks', really applies to our health service. You don't see many millionaires lying on hospital trolleys or travelling around the country for health care."

Cullinane said he was sure there wasn't one person in the hall not affected by cancer.

"The facts are that one in three people living on this Island will develop cancer, one in four will die," he said.

He called for free cervical screening to be introduced immediately for women over the age of 25, the immediate roll out of the National Breast Check programme, the introduction of a colon cancer screening programme, and the delivery of world class, regionalised cancer care services, including radiotherapy, without discrimination in terms of ability to pay or geographical location.

Dublin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh dealt with the issue of childcare, pointing out how it had become so expensive that, for many, it was like a "second mortgage". He said while the issue affected all parents, it disproportionately affected women and was one of the reasons women earned less than men.

"Without childcare, the parent either cannot work, cannot work full time or cannot obtain the further education or training that would qualify them for better paid work," he said. "So women workers get stuck in lower paid low level or part-time positions, often earning less than minimum wage."

Calling it the litmus test for a government's commitment to social and economic justice, Ó Snodaigh said Sinn Féin would continue to campaign for the provision of childcare places for all.

Siobhan Vallely from Armagh praised the work of the Sinn Féin TDs in Leinster House in the area of children with special needs, and called for the immediate provision by the Dublin and British Governments of all the necessary financial, personnel and other resources required to accelerate delivery of the Middletown Centre for Autism, County Armagh.