Donegal Sinn Féin Senator Pádraig Mac Lochlainn has learned that there are more than 15,000 Donegal people on hospital waiting lists, almost 4,500 of whom have been waiting for more than 9 months.
He demanded a clear plan from Government for investment in the public health system to address this ongoing crisis.
He said:
“Investment in the public health system, and not outsourcing to the private sector, is the solution to the current crisis gripping hospitals.”
“The real solution to the crisis lies in recruitment and retention of staff, and the reopening of beds closed in our hospitals by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments. It has been well documented that Letterkenny University Hospital has been seriously neglected through the years in terms of financial and staffing resources relative to our county’s population and health needs.”
“Minister Simon Harris seems to think that the National Treatment Purchase Fund is the solution to this deepening problem, and we know that Fianna Fáil agrees with him. However, outsourcing of the problem is not a long term solution and privatising more healthcare will simply not work.”
Senator Pádraig MacLochlainn
He continued:
“Sinn Fein wants to see targeted investment in our health service. This should be supported by fair and progressive taxation. In our party’s costed health service plan, published earlier this year, we demonstrated how this can be done.”
There is now a very really danger that this government and Minister Harris are going to use the crisis in waiting lists as the Trojan Horse for delivering even further privatisation of our health service.”
“The creeping privatisation agenda, championed by Fine Gael, will not go unchallenged by Sinn Féin and by all those who want to ensure a health care system that is free at the point of delivery and where access is based on need alone.”
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