Emergency motion re health service emergency for Union AGMs and ADCs

national | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis Friday February 04, 2005 15:07 by Paul Kinsella - CPSU An Post Branch Committee paulkinsella53 at yahoo dot com 53 Lorcan Grove, Santry, Dublin 9, Eire 085-1478100

Apologies for the length of this, but I feel, given the serious and worsening situation in the health service that the following motion below should be forwarded as an Emergency motion re the health service emergency for Union AGMs (Annual General Meetings) and ADCs (Annual Delegate Conferences), most of which are happening around this time, so that we, the workers, who do have the clout, can really up the ante on this government to properly fund our health service, instead of wasting money on such things as exclusive golf courses, and increased military spending! Where's our priorities?

“Given the worsening crisis in our health service this ADC (Annual Delegate Conference) in unison with other unions and corcerned groups such as patient's groups actively campaigns for:

• Free primary Health Care for all. The GP service is the cornerstone of every effective health care system. GP visits, along with basic dental and eye-care visits, must be free to all citizens.
• An end to Hospital Charges. Hospital charges are a tax on illness. Hospital charges mean that poorer families postpone essential GP and hospital visits until an emergency. This has a massively detrimental effect on the health of those families and in the long run is actually more costly on the health system.
• No more private consultant beds in Public Hospitals. Private consultant beds in public hospitals are a subsidy from the taxpayer to the private patient. They also totally distort hospital admissions and impinge on the availability of beds for emergency public patients, as well as effectively allowing lucrative double-jobbing by some consultants."

“And that we campaign by whatever means necessary (i.e. strikes, marches, lobbying TDs/Ministers, letter writing etc.) to ensure equal access for everyone to the health service. If necessary a ballot should be held on this.”