Privatising the Health Service

sligo | consumer issues | opinion/analysis Friday April 06, 2007 13:15 by Union member

Sligo Borough Council voted down a motion condemning the governments policy which will tax aid speculators to build a private hospital on public land beside Sligo General Hospital. This is the first Council to endorse what amounts to the beginning of the privatisation of the Health Service.

Sligo Borough Council surely holds the title of being the most right wing assembly in Ireland, and that includes Ballymena. To add to it's litany of either privatising services or handing over responsibility for things such as housing to charities to look after, we now have a vote by the Council which endorses the policy of privatisation and which will copperfasten the two tier health system. It will simply mean that in future, the quality and quantity of health care that you get will depend entirely on how much money you have.
There is no way that the people of Sligo favour the policy of privatisation of health and as a health worker, I fear greatly for the future. Workers can see at first hand that private patients get better treatment and we all want this to stop. The private hospital will only cover up discrimination.
The council must discuss this matter again and undo this decision which is a slur on the good people of Sligo