Continued threat to local NHS services

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. 

Welcome for Health Minister u-turn to keep open Emergency Dental Treatment Centres in face of dental PPE crisis

Health Department must now directly source appropriate PPE for dentists and bring forward investment in NHS dental services

90 percent of dentists reported to be without the right PPE to conduct Aerosol generating procedures such as fillings

Cross-community Labour councillor Donal O’Cofaigh welcomed the last minute u-turn by the Health Department to avert a crisis in dentistry in Northern Ireland but called for more investment in NHS provision.

“I wrote to Minister Swann yesterday to demand he urgently review the pending closure of the five Emergency Dental Treatment Centres which risked leaving patients, in particular NHS patients, facing only one option when it came to a toothache – that of having their tooth removed.

“The plans to close the emergency treatment centres, which have provided access to ‘aerosol generating procedures’ or AGPs such as drilling for fillings during the Covid lockdown, were timed to coincide with the full reopening of dentists across Northern Ireland. But a major immediate problem was that these dentists had not been issued with or able to obtain privately the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) to conduct AGPs - meaning that the only treatment that could be offered for the more serious complaints was tooth extraction.

“Today’s decision comes only on the back of mounting media coverage of the crisis but whatever the reason for this belated action, I wish to welcome it as it averts the immediate prospect of a major dental crisis – in particular impacting children, the elderly and the most vulnerable.

“I also understand from dentists that have been notified that they will be provided a payment of £500 per practice to fit staff for PPE and again while this is welcome it doesn’t address the pressing supply problems – either in terms of appropriate PPE or specialists to do the ‘fit-outs’. The Department has a responsibility to conduct this work and source the appropriate PPE.

Kick Private Vultures out of South West Acute Hospital!

The privately financed South West Acute Hospital

Before the South West Acute Hospital was even built, promises were broken by the politicians and more than a dozen key medical services were lost, leaving us with a huge building but with few locally-delivered services. Now it can be revealed that the total cost of the hospital is to overrun by almost HALF A BILLION POUNDS, the vast bulk going into the profits of big business!

 

Many patients have found themselves travelling to Altnagelvin in Derry for even minor procedures. As the Socialist Party predicted, the closure of acute services in Omagh has increased pressure the South West unit, leading to crisis situations. What does it say about the Assembly parties’ commitment to our health service that basic procedures cannot be dealt with in this “state of the art” hospital?

Cuts to Acute Hospital will threaten Public Services in Enniskillen

The decision to cut the number of beds at the new acute hospital in Enniskillen to 269 rather than the original planned 315 which has been recently reported is a severe threat to the quality and nature of health provision in Enniskillen.

The loss of 43 beds will result in a further 50 nursing posts disappearing, impacting an economy already reeling from a collapse in private sector demand. The Western Health Trust is celebrating this “significant saving in nursing costs” and states that further savings will be made ‘by applying enhanced working efficiencies and the development of new roles’ – in plain language, that means nurses will be further pressurised and forced to cover for inadequate staffing levels.

The new hospital is being built through the expensive and wasteful private finance initiative or PFI; at dozens of other hospitals the use of PFI schemes has resulted directly in the loss of beds and nursing posts as the banks seek to maximise their profits. 

There is widespread concern that the new hospital will be more than suitable for outright privatisation in the future - its location along the border would make a large private hospital in Enniskillen highly lucrative for investors.

I believe that the hospital should be built with public money and be kept under full public control both now and in the future. 

The Assembly parties are implementing these Tory cuts instead of standing up for our communities and our public services. We need to build a campaign across all communities and stand with local nurses, doctors and other health service staff in defending public health provision.

Just as with the cuts to education, the home help service and special needs provision in this town, we need to build campaigns to force those in power to reverse course. That is the Socialist Party’s agenda in this election and will be my agenda as a member of Fermanagh District Council.

Nursing home cuts - “inhumane and outrageous”

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.

Defending the new Southwest Hospital

Local grassroots campaigners across this county were instrumental in securing the new acute hospital in Enniskillen. Despite that achievement, the new hospital was not built with public money but under a Private-Finance Initiative (PFI) as such, it must now show a profit for the private sector consortium who will operate it.

The management of the new hospital by private sector interests will involve the transfer of jobs from the health service. This is being done to minimise costs and maximise profits and will mean pay cuts for low-paid staff and attacks to the level of services. There is no reason for private sector interests to be involved – the bond rates are far below the profits guaranteed to privateers.

The PFI deal is likely to include more stealth charges, e.g. paid parking, but it may also see a dramatic increase in consultants practicing privately and there is the continued threat that the hospital as a whole could be simply privatised (with the loss of acute services). We urgently need politicians who are capable of fighting to protect our hospital services.