Pádraig MacLochlainn - North West should be treated as one region for delivering health services
Cllr Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, Fullerton, Mac Lochlainn, O Hagan cumann,
Buncrana, Co. Donegal urging delegates to support motions 187 and 478
In
2001, this 26 county Government, in their Health Strategy document "Quality
and Fairness" promised all of us a world-class health service.
Almost
five years on, I challenge anyone to walk through the corridors of hospital
A&E wards across this state with our elderly and sick on trolleys and tell
me that we have a world class health system.
In my county, people
have had enough of the excuses. A grass roots campaign called Donegal Action
for Cancer Care has captured the public mood. This campaign was sparked by a
number of strong empowered women who decided they would no longer watch
their loved ones be treated like second-class citizens. They are an
inspiration to communities across the state. I would like to express my
party's full solidarity and support for their demands for equality of access
and cancer care treatment.
The very personal heartbreaking
stories revealed by Donegal Action for Cancer Care make for sad reading. The
elderly man who stopped travelling to Dublin for chemotherapy treatment
rather than face the traumatic trip by bus for fear of being sick. That man
subsequently died at home.
The two women, one, a lone parent and
one, the mother of disabled children who opted for a mastectomy rather than
place a heavy burden on their families. It is surely inhumane in the year
2006 to ask sick people to travel hundreds of miles to Dublin coupled with
the additional hardship placed on families to find accommodation and the
sense of isolation felt by all of them.
If the North West
cross-border region were to be treated as one region for the purposes of
delivering health services, then all of this obscenity would end.
Sinn
Féin have consistently argued that it is folly to have two separate health
systems on a small island and we have demonstrated that there is a need to
harmonise provision and delivery of health services across the whole of the
island of Ireland.
In that light, we welcome this Government's
recent late conversion to this analysis but reject their hotch potch
solution to send cancer patients from Donegal and the North West region over
to Belfast. Delegates, I urge you to support Motions 187 and 478 and ensure
that on the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, this Government will
honour the calling of the proclamation and finally cherish all the children
of the nation equally.