Trade unionists to protest major city health conference

The health services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has called for a protest to be held on the morning of the first day of the Northern Ireland Confederation for Health and Social Care (NICON) conference on Wednesday.

Anne Speed, chair of the ICTU health services committee and UNISON Head of Bargaining said: “The headline health statistics are dramatic: disadvantaged working class people in our society are dying prematurely, have a widening gap in life expectancy and top the suicide rates at a faster pace than before the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) and devolution.

“The solution requires a dramatic shift in resources and the direct involvement of all facets of government.

“Instead we have ‘Transforming Your Care’, an accountancy device designed to manage the cuts in the health budget.

“NICON has a moral obligation to speak out and to ensure that other voices are heard. Instead, this conference is yet another vehicle for the implementation of TYC in the absence of any analysis of, or response to the alternative views submitted.”

She said the trade union movement has very clear views on the future of the National Health Service (NHS) “but it appears that those are not views which NICON wants to hear.”

Ms Speed said dubbed TYC was not about “transforming” but of “transferring our care from the NHS to the private sector.”

She claimed: “Social care, home care and medical care are all targeted. The original Investing for Health strategy and the recommendations of Bamford and Marmot have clearly been sidelined to the detriment of the people.”

She called on all NICON conference participants “who care about the future of the NHS and want to challenge the existing patterns of inequality in our society to speak up and speak out about the deconstruction of the NHS.”