West Belfast Sinn Féin Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Sinn Fein demands answers and action on health cuts

Published: 2 November, 2009

On Friday, 6th November, a public rally will take place at City Hall in support of the health service and workers.

Sinn Fein is urging everyone concerned about the cuts to join this rally and show your support against cuts to vital frontline services.

Despite assurances from the North's Health Minister, Michael McGimpsey, that "efficiency savings" in the department of health would not impact on front-line services, he has approved proposals to cut hundreds of nursing positions, remove beds from hospitals and drastically reduce ambulance services.

There is growing anger among health and social care professionals, trade unions and the broader community as the cuts promise to seriously erode the quality of care in the health-care system and attack the rights of health workers.

Hitting front line

The Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, the largest trust in the Six Counties and employer of 22,000 people, has been directed to cut 9% of its spending, or £130 million, by 2011. The Department of Health has done nothing to change the way in which budgets are allocated to Trusts.

This process, called the capitation formula, still fails to skew resources to areas of greatest disadvantage. That has already resulted in a legacy of under-funding to those in greatest health and social need in Belfast .

When drastic proposals for cuts provoked a public outcry in 2007, McGimpsey insisted the proposals were not policy and that front-line services would not suffer.

However, the Belfast Trust has brought forward many of the exact same proposals, which have been approved by the minister.

Some of the cuts proposed include:

  • 450 social services positions and more than 722 nursing jobs are to go by 2011 under the proposals approved by the Health Minister.
  • Ambulance provision across the North may be cut by 70,000 hours.
  • 152 beds are to be cut at the City and Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast next month.
  • The Belfast Trust last month suspended the referral of patients to the private sector for operations, which had previously been used to shorten waiting lists. The trust paid for 7,000 private operations last year and commissioned another 4,000 this year before the suspension.
  • Mental health beds are also coming under pressure, with one of four wards for older people in Knockbracken Hospital in south Belfast being considered for closure.

Other actions that have been proposed include a greater reliance on a "skills mix" within the medical profession - that is, relying on less qualified health-care workers to carry out the work of nurses and midwives in order to cut costs. The Belfast Trust also plans to ban staff overtime and stop all use of agency nurses.

There is also a push to have patients stay in hospital for the shortest time possible, including those who have undergone surgery. Women's health professionals have expressed dismay at the Belfast Trust's plans that new mothers be released from hospital just six to 12 hours after they give birth.

'Unacceptable'

The Belfast Trust's so-called'efficiency saving' proposals are unacceptable and unsustainable.

These proposals are supposed to free up resources to be reinvested in front-line services, but you cannot get more front-line than the ambulance service, the targets of the cuts. Similarly, the backbone of the health service are its nurses - cutting more than 700 nursing positions would not only impact on the quality of care provided, it will place enormous pressure on the remaining nurses.

The Belfast Trust's plans to stop recruiting new staff, ban agency workers and overtime will impact on the most vulnerable and lowest paid health workers.

Clerical staff on agency or temporary contracts are already without maternity cover, holiday leave or pension entitlements. I want to know how this strategy has been assessed against the Trust's legal duty to promote equality.

I have submitted questions to the minister about the Belfast Health Trust: when they first knew about the proposed cuts to staff, facilities and services? Who else knew about these cuts? Why did they not bring these cuts to the attention of the committee or others before they began to impose them?

The Belfast Health Trust is the largest health employer in these islands. If the Belfast Trust thinks it is good enough to tell the Health Committee that it woke up one morning after the summer holidays and suddenly discovered a huge hole in their bank account, they better think again.

The health of our community and the rights of our workers are at stake and we need answers and action immediately.

Support the rally on November 6th.