Stormont’s health cuts to blame for five deaths last year – Belfast City A&E must re-open now!

A&Epaddy“The horrendous revelation that five patients died last year at the Royal Victoria Hospital as a result of cuts is proof that Stormont’s austerity is costing lives” according to a health campaigner.

Paddy Meehan, who organised protests against the closure of Belfast City Hospital A&E unit in 2012 said “Tragically our warning that lives will be needlessly lost as a result of the ceaseless cuts to our health service has been ignored by all the politicians in the Stormont Executive.

“The findings of the health watchdog, the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA), have illustrated a whole string of management breaches, from refusing to provided proper staffing levels to serious incidences of bullying but none of this comes as any surprise to hospital staff.

“Instead of blaming doctors for refusing to work in emergency services, all emergency services must now be properly funded and resourced. One concrete step towards ending the health service crisis is to re-open Belfast City A&E unit as a matter of urgency. I together with colleagues in the Socialist Party and the trade union movement will be stepping up our campaign to re-open Belfast City A&E and would call on people to support us by e-mailing info@socialistpartyni.net.”

Total
0
Shares
Previous Article

Probability of Garda spying on the Garda Ombudsman is an Irish Watergate scandal in the making

Next Article

Iran 1979: A revolution that was taken from the working class

Related Posts
Read More

Scrap the transfer tests!

The announcement that the primary-secondary school transfer tests will proceed in the autumn is a source of anxiety for parents and pupils alike. School closures as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic have meant that the same level of preparation and teaching resources will not be available to those pupils scheduled to sit the tests. This is obviously a serious cause for concern, as the selection of secondary education is a major life event for young people. 

Read More

Socialist classic ‘Divide and Rule’ republished

This year, the Socialist Party intends to re-print some of Peter Hadden's key works, which we think will be an assist for a new generation looking towards socialist ideas as an alternative to sectarian division. Our first re-print will be of Divide and Rule, written in 1980, in which Peter analyses the period leading up to the partition of Ireland. Below is the introduction to the new edition.