The campaigns waged by organisations such as Fermanagh Save Our Services, Save Our SWAH and the Stroke Survivors have been instrumental in defending local services including the Stroke Department and Neonatal unit at Southwest Acute Hospital – to date. We cannot assume that there will not be further moves to undermine these vital services in the future however.
The consultation on the rationing of Stroke Departments is now more than a year overdue – likely reflecting the unprecedented and repeated mass mobilisations by the community here against the threat. Three times we have now witnessed almost one thousand people crowd into the Killyhevlin Hotel to say no to the closure of our local services. Despite this Stormont remains intent on proceeding with the cutback agenda – so sadly we can anticipate that when the conclusions are made public the threat is likely to return.
Similarly moves to close the neonatal unit in SWAH were only defeated through mass mobilisations which broke the back of the Trust on this issue but in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic both the neonatal unit and the wider children’s ward were removed from Enniskillen.
A BBC report has indicated that there is a rationing of nursing home places by the Western Health Trust – this means that every month only 2 new nursing home places in the entire Western Region are to be offered to older people who need them. The decision means that patients cannot be given nursing home places despite the fact that the Trust has empty beds to accommodate them.
This decision by the Western Health Trust to cut nursing home places is a direct attack on the elderly and the vulnerable.
Our older people who have worked all their lives and have paid tax and national insurance yet are treated appallingly. Some are sent home to die to save money; others are forced to live with only 15 minutes support a day when they need much more. Families already struggling with the consequences of the economic collapse are being forced to look after sick and highly-dependent relatives.
The consequences of this inhuman approach are outrageous. One head of a nursing home was quoted as saying:
"I feel incredibly sad when I have to tell families that we cannot help them. In one case, I knew that I was sending an elderly man home to die."
At the same time, cuts have forced the Trust to reduce care packages for elderly or sick people in their homes and those that receive care get a completely inadequate amount. The consequences are that elderly people are being queued up in the Erne Hospital and blocked needed beds there.
Assembly Executive responsible for cuts
This report brings home the real impact of the ‘efficiency’ cuts that were unanimously agreed by all the Assembly Executive four years ago. And they will seem paltry to the cuts that are coming in the near future.
The cuts which the Assembly Executive is carrying out should be met with an organised opposition from local communities, workers, the unemployed and young people. The politicians should be told to go after the rich and the bankers and make them pay instead of carrying out cuts to crucial services.
This blog is taken from a letter I've just submitted to the local papers. The video is a bit of fun.
The ConDem government’s comprehensive spending review represented a clear attack on working people of all colours and creeds. On the back of a collapse caused by the bankers, speculators and spivs of the city financial centres, working people are the only ones being forced to take the pain. Our services, our wages and our jobs are under threat. The impact on Fermanagh where the private sector is already balancing on a knife-edge is likely to be severe. These cuts could push the local economy past a critical point and wreak structural damage which will not be rebuilt easily.
At the very least, these cuts will devastate working people many of whom will have no option but to join the lengthening dole queues as the job losses mount and their benefits are slashed. In a world where we are told education is critical to building a ‘knowledge-based’ economy, young people from working class backgrounds have effectively been shut out of universities through moves to increase fees and the interest they pay on student loans.
At the same time, the Government is supportive of moves to start the printing presses rolling to ensure the profits of the banks and super-rich continue to grow. The consequence of such monetary policy will be inflation on imported foodstuffs at a time when workers’ wages are being pushed down.
From every conceivable angle working people (those who create all the wealth in society) are being squeezed to safeguard the profits of big business. There is a global race to the bottom which will continue until we put a stop to it.
Unfortunately, we cannot rely on our local politicians who even before the economic crisis implemented neo-Thatcherite 3% cuts year-on-year for the last three years - threatening care services for elderly in the county and forcing a moratorium on the recruitment of new nurses and hospital staff. They will implement the cuts despite their choreographed words of ‘anger’ but no doubt their slick PR machines will ensure that they are photographed by the local press at the front row of all the protests.
Instead, what’s needed is to build a grassroots opposition to the current wave of cuts and those will inevitably follow it. Any politician from the mainstream parties who is genuine about opposing the cuts should resign their party membership and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the communities against them; that is the only honourable position. Building a cross-community opposition involving workers, communities and the youth is the only appropriate answer to the cuts.
The savage cuts to be announced by the Tory / Lib Dem coalition government in the Comprehensive Spending Review on 20th October have dominated the media and conversations in workplaces, communities and homes. For socialists and trade union activists, the question of how to fight the cuts is of upmost importance.
The scale of the cuts will be devastating for public sector workers, for communities who need these services and for workers in the private sector which relies heavily on public sector spending in Northern Ireland. The overall impact of the cuts will be to plunge the economy in the North deeper into recession, representing a general assault on the working class and also the middle class.
As other countries complain about the jobless recovery that they are experiencing, Northern Ireland continues to experience economic stagnation. Fermanagh meanwhile continues to count to job losses as our economy continues to contract.
The latest available statistics (July 2010) indicate that the seasonally-adjusted unemployment claimant count for NI was 6.4% compared to a UK average of 4.5%. This was the second highest of any region in the UK and had suffered an increase of over 11% over the last year at a time when UK unemployment was shrinking. Fermanagh’s unemployment had increased by 3% in July and had increased overall by almost 12% in the twelve month period prior to that.
