éirígí Tir Chonaill

Investment Needed Not Cutbacks - éirígí

03/10/2010

Letterkenny Genneral Hospital

Spokesperson for éirígí Tir Chonaill, Micheál Cholm Mac Giolla Easbuig has said that the news that services in Letterkenny General Hospital were stretched to the limit last Monday night (September 27th) just goes to highlight the mistake the Dublin government and the HSE have made in deciding to make cuts in the health service. He also said that it was another example of how the future will go if the government continue to implement cutbacks in order to make up the deficit which has been created in the banking crisis.

Speaking after the news broke that staff at Letterkenny General Hospital were overstretched as twelve patients spilled over into the out-patients department, forcing a number of clinics in the hospital to be closed on Tuesday and the A&E department to issue a call that people do not attend unless absolutely necessary, the éirígí spokesperson said “This unfortunate example where hospital staff have found themselves over stretched and unable to deal properly with patients is a taster of what will be ahead for all of us if the Fianna Fáil led government are allowed to make the savage cutbacks that they are planning.”

“In order to balance the books after they bailed out the bankers and property developers who helped cause this financial mess in the first place, the government think the best way to do it is to make cutbacks in in essential services such as health. Can you imagine how more disastrous things might have been in Letterkenny General on Monday if the hospital staff numbers were cut or hospital beds closed? This is a prime example if ever there was one that the government should be investing in our public services not slashing them to ribbons”, he said.

Mr Mac Giolla Easbuig finished by saying, “What happened in the hospital this week would only be the tip of the iceberg if the Fianna Fáil/Green Party government continues with its cuts in public services. Instead of making draconian decisions to make the most needy in society pay for the mistakes and greed of the exceptionally wealthy by cutting public services such as health, those in Lenister House should stop bailing out the wealthy individuals who caused the problem in the first place. They should also take back our natural resources from foreign private companies and invest the resulting wealth of those resources in our health services so that we not only never again see the likes of what happened this week in Letterkenny General, but have a world class health service free at point of delivery for all the people”.