Mr Lawlor added “Elliot Dynes is a unique unit, which provides rehabilitation to mainly older patients who have suffered serious debilitating conditions such as strokes. The decision to close the centre is outrageous and will have a devastating impact on the recovery necessary by the people in need of these services, many of whom are extremely vulnerable”.
“Staff at the unit have been left in limbo, and there is a lot of anger at this move. Workers feel they may be forced to transfer anywhere in the Belfast Trust or face losing their job.”
“Ominously this is just the tip of the iceberg. Thanks to the Assembly Executive’s programme of slashing public spending, cuts are already taking place across the Belfast Trust with dire consequences for staff and patients. And if the main parties get their way, there is much worse to come. I would also like to challenge Councillor Tom Hartley, who receives £5-10k per year as a member of the board of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, to publically justify these cuts.”
The Socialist Party is campaigning to raise public awareness of these cuts and to mobilise staff and the local community against attacks on the health service in the coming months.
Thousands demand dissolution as political crisis deepens
‘The peoples’ lyricist’
Terry Eagleton's "Why Marx Was Right" is a wonderfully written and accessible introduction to the thought of Karl Marx. It is fashionable to dismiss Marxism as "outdated" or "irrelevant" as it pertains to contemporary economic and political problems. Eagleton provides a much needed correction to this ignorant viewpoint.
CWI statement