Tony Dorrian Workers Party Representative is calling on the Executive Parties to meet the full costs of the Health Service pay award and to do so now.
Mr Dorrian said it was ridiculous that health service staff in Northern Ireland have to take strike action to secure parity with their colleagues in other parts of the UK. He warned that NHS England are asking for an additional £3bn to meet the unexpected cost of the doctors strike, redundancy payments, and the Trump driven higher drugs costs. Do we really need to force a strike on our hard working committed staff, especially with the winter pressures adding to the costs. The Workers Party have been watching the situation across the United Kingdom have real concerns at developments there.
Hospital chiefs in England say that unless they receive the extra cash needed, they would have to cancel weekend and evening sessions of surgery, which gives patients who are stuck on the waiting list faster care. Mr Dorrian says this would be bad for patients, but it also begs the question, “why are we here in Northern Ireland sending patients to private providers” when we could arrange extra surgery sessions at weekends and evenings in our hospitals.
The Workers Party fully supports the National Health Service staff in their demand for pay parity and will join them on picket lines if necessary. But the key question has to be why should these committed workers have to strike in order to be treated fairly and get pay parity. The behaviour of the Executive who have broken their promise to ensure parity, is shameful, but there is still time for them to do the Right Thing and meet the full pay award, promises won’t work this time around, nor should they.