Ian O Dálaigh - “Galway Hospital Bed Shortage Highlights Failings Of Two-tier Health Service!”
Ian O’Dálaigh has slammed the fact that the HSE Winter Plan has allocated no additional hospital beds for University Hospital Galway, despite 205 extra beds being provided across the Twenty-Six Counties. Speaking from Galway City, the Éirígí spokesperson said,
"It is absolutely appalling that Galway will receive no additional beds under the HSE Winter Plan. The plan itself found that 12.9 percent of people on trollies in this state over an eight-week period before Christmas were in Galway University Hospital. So it is abundantly clear that Galway is in dire need of more public hospital beds.
The issue of patients lying on trollies for prolonged periods has been an ongoing one for years in Galway’s hospitals. It is typical of gombeen politicians to look for quick fix, in an attempt to deflect from the real issue at hand - which is that our public health service is chronically underfunded and mismanaged.
The total cost of the Winter Plan is €77 million – and €20 million of that is to be spent on the SafetyNET series of agreements with private hospitals.
So over 15% of the funding in this plan is going to be handed over to private corporations who profit from healthcare. So instead of directing this additional funding to a public hospital in Galway, the gombeens hand it to the private sector. These is clearly an ideological choice, based on a blind commitment to destructive ‘free market’ economics.
But this commitment to the destructive free market is coming at a cost, and that cost is the provision of high-quality healthcare to all who need it.
The Galway hospital bed shortage highlights the failing of a two-tier health service. It provided further evidence that the two-tier health system has completely failed. It simply isn't fit for purpose.
In the short-term, this €20 million of public money would be better used to increase capacity in our public hospitals; more beds, more staff - and better conditions for all staff - being obvious examples of how the service could be improved.
In the longer term we need to create a new Irish National Health Service. Éirígí is committed to the establishment of a secular, all-Ireland NHS that will provide high-quality healthcare to all citizens from the womb to the tomb”.