The Republican Socialist Youth Movement believes that the removal of essential cancer care services from Sligo General Hospital to University College Hospital, Galway, is a disgraceful attack on the people of Sligo. Cancer patients in Sligo are being forced to travel for well over 4 hours for what is in many cases 15 minutes of treatment. The required facilities and treatment for these people were previously accessible in Sligo General Hospital to the highest standard, that was before the savage intervention of Mary Harney and the Fianna Fáil/Green Party coalition government.
We in the RSYM think that this episode clearly demonstrates how the current system in place in this country cannot possibly cater for the needs of the Irish people. This government would rather throw billions at the banks in an attempt to preserve their failed system than to come to the aid of cancer sufferers who desperately need their help. The people of the North-West are entitled to their own Centre of Excellence and it is time those in positions of power in Ireland recognised this. As a socialist organisation, the RSYM believes that adequate health care is a right and not a privilege. Part of that right is accessibility, and due to the recent move of Sligo’s cancer services it is a guarantee that less people are going to avail of the treatments they need. This government is gambling with people’s lives. The Republican Socialist Youth Movement calls on the government to end the hand-outs to the bankers who have destroyed this country’s economy and to use some of that money to give the people of Sligo their own Centre of Excellence.
Republican Socialist Youth Movement
