Private Healthcare System is Costing Us All
"We need to develop a single tier, public health system across the island with a focus on preventative care to reduce the need to attend emergency departments in the first place." — Ruairí Fahy
On Saturday January 21st there will be a protest, demanding that 24/7 Emergency Departments are reopened in St. John's, Ennis and Nenagh Hospitals.
The protest will be meeting at 11AM at City Hall before heading down O'Connell Street.
The organisers expect that the protest will "bring the city to a standstill."
Ruairí Fahy, People Before Profit representative for Limerick City North said, "the change to accept patients arriving in an Ambulance into Ennis Hospital if they don't require immediate critical care is a positive step and should be expanded to Nenagh Hospital too to reduce the load on UHL.
"The lack of 24 hour access to emergency care outside of UHL for a region spanning Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and parts of Cork, over 400,000 people in total, has cost lives, and will continue to do so unless the former services are restored.
"But this is only the tip of the iceberg with our healthcare system. There aren't enough GPs, we don't focus on preventative care leading to much more expensive emergency care, we lack appropriate supports for discharging patients, the problems go on and on.
"Last week we had the minister telling people not to attend the Emergency Department unless it was absolutely necessary but in many areas there is no alternative for accessing health care after 8PM.
"Ultimately we are facing the costs of our 2 tier health system where the private hospital system can only exist as long as we have a non-functional public alternative. The focus on creating a for-profit healthcare system, over the last 25 years has left us with ever increasing waiting lists and hospitals constantly running in crisis mode, costing us all our health and driving many to buy private health insurance because they can't take the pain any longer.
"To actually address the issue we need to develop a single tier, public health system across the island with a focus on preventative care to reduce the need to attend emergency departments in the first place. We also need an expansion of publicly owned community care centres and nursing homes to allow patients to be discharged for appropriate care."
