Vulnerable Will Bear the Burden of Health Cuts in NI

Commenting on Health Minister Mike Nesbitt’s appearance at the Assembly Health Committee, Nicola Grant said those who are asking if there is any fat left in the Health Service that can deliver £400 million worth of cuts have clearly not been paying attention.

Over the past decade the Health Service has not only been cut back to the bone but has been bled dry. She continued that Trusts would now be putting forward their so-called efficiency savings plans, and past experience tells us that the sick, the poor, the elderly and most vulnerable will be asked to bear the burden of the financial savings.

The Health Service is already in crisis, health inequalities have grown worse. and waiting lists are growing longer day by day. The health service must now learn that the private sector does not hold the answer to this crisis but have in fact fostered and helped create the situation in order to accumulate massive profits.

The Minister and the Health Committee surely must also know that the type of reforms they are proposing will further damage an already fragile system. The Health Service does have many problems, but they have not happened by accident. They have been designed by previous reforms that were costly in terms of financial waste and a lowering of quality clinical outcomes.

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Nicola concluded, “it’s now time to stop take stock and have an open and transparent discussions that is not tainted by vested interests inside or outside of the health service. It is now time to put patients and service users first. It is now time to be honest about the unmet need and the reasonable expectations we are entitled to have regarding our citizens health and wellbeing”.