Letterkenny trolley patient's victims of Government health policy -
Published: 6 July, 2006
Sinn Féin Cllr Pádraig Mac Lochlainn described patients lying on trolleys throughout our hospitals as "victims of the government's health policy". Cllr Mac Lochlainn was speaking after it emerged that 26 patients were left languishing on trolleys in Letterkenny last night, the third highest number in the state.
"Every winter we read headlines highlighting the number of people spending many hours and even days on trolleys in the Accident and Emergency departments of our public hospitals. There is a myth that this is only a winter problem. But the Irish Nurses Organisation reported that 224 patients were on trolleys in our A&E units
yesterday. This is a scandal; these people are all victims of this Government's health policy.
"If that is the figure today, at the height of summer, what is it going to be like in
November when very ill people, many of them elderly people who have been
disgracefully neglected because of inadequate primary care and community
care services are forced to face the awful prospect of days and nights in
A&E units?
"I recently met with an INO member who told me that the decision to provide 30 temporary beds in the hospital has now been delayed until early 2007, rather than later this year as they had been promised. This is absolutely unacceptable. This government have been in power nearly a decade, but in that time the health service has
degenerated into chaos.
"If Taoiseach Bertie Ahern or Tánaiste Mary Harney became ill you could be
guaranteed a bed would be suddenly found for them. The privatisation agenda
of this government has resulted in private hospitals springing up while our public health service crumbles. Sinn Féin oppose the two-tier health system, patients should be treated according to their need and not their wealth.
"Patients, nurses, doctors and surgeons deserve better from this government, who have failed us all. People have heard enough excuses from the politicians in power, they want to see action. At the very least, a wealthy country should be a healthy one."
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