Privatising the Health Service

by ned the red Fri Apr 06, 2007 19:28

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.

by Cowardly Tom - Also sacked by ITGWU Fri Apr 06, 2007 22:26

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.

by Goblin Sat Apr 07, 2007 13:27

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?

by Union member Sun Apr 08, 2007 09:56

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.

by AStudent Dr. Mon Apr 09, 2007 12:36

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.

by Nurse supporter Mon Apr 09, 2007 13:13

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.