Workers Party Regional Spokesperson Nicola Grant commenting on a report on waiting lists for treatment across Northern Ireland said we all knew that something is fundamentally wrong with the Service
Ms Grant said the Workers Party has been campaigning for decades against the changes and the cuts to services that have had a detrimental impact on those most in need of treatment. The Minister continues to say that the reimbursement scheme will help those on waiting lists because, it is now been extended to cover access to treatment in other parts of Europe not just the South of Ireland. “What bit of people are living through a cost of living crisis does the minister and his officials not understand”. People have died while waiting for treatment and this should serve as a wake call.
Ms Grant added there needs to be a fundamental restructuring of how the waiting lists are prioritised if people can be on them for up to ten years without out treatment, this must be avoidable, so must the rush to the private sector which deplete resources within the health service both financial and human. Our NHS trained doctors and nurses are spending as much time in the private sector as they do in the health service and this needs to stop.
Ms Grant concluded by saying with Northern Ireland having the highest levels of poverty, multiple deprivations, and health inequalities with no real plan on the horizon to tackle these issues. A closer analysis of the deaths while on waiting lists would probably indicate that they are mostly people from those areas. Working class low income families bearing the brunt of a political system that is failing our most vulnerable citizens. It is time to reinstate the founding principles of Nye Bevan’s National Health Service.