###STATEMENT###
###15.03.2012###
The Irish Republican Socialist Party would like to express it’s deepest sympathy with the family whose relative’s death on a trolley in the RVH went unnoticed due to the unprecedented overload on medical staff facing the most savage cuts in healthcare provision. The sad news that the death of a patient waiting for treatment on a trolley at the RVH went unnoticed is compounded by the official response from the Belfast Health and Social Health Care trust who stated that they were ‘unsure’ of when the patient actually died. It makes a nonsense of the Royal group of hospitals’ spokespersons hollow assertion that, “we are focused on patients and we are delivering the best care.”
Obviously not!
The Irish Republican Socialist Party campaigned in 2011 against the closure of the A & E department at Belfast City Hospital and warned that medical treatment for patients would be the real casualty. In November 2011, on the eve of the closure of Belfast City Hospital’s casualty department, the IRSP stated that:
“Other hospitals in the greater Belfast area, who are already under severe operational stress, are now being forced to cope with at least another 40,000 patients.”
It is now quite clear that this predicition has been sadly vindicated.
The same Stormont Duma and Westminster politicians who are now hypocritically wringing their hands over the latest health-care deficit tragedy did not lift a finger to attempt to halt the closure of the City Hospital’s emergency department in 2011, in fact in many cases they voted for it and would have been well aware of the consequences for patient care levels. The faux public concern shown by overpaid members of the political elite as news broke over the unnoticed death of a patient while awaiting treatment on a hospital trolley, will have little resonance with struggling NHS workers who went on strike in Novemebr 2011 over the current government offensive on their livelihood, in light of the Stormont set’s self-awarded 11% pay increase of £5000 per annum this week! The director of the RCN, the nursing staff union, has clearly stated that the overload of patient levels has led to a compromising of the professional judgement of it’s staff due to the ‘sheer volume of work’ caused by government cuts to essential hospital services.
The Irish Republican Socialist Party calls for a full transparent enquiry into this sad death and reaffirms it’s unconditional support for health service workers who are very much casualties of the current Westminster and Stormont offensive on healthcare and public services.
Fight the cuts!
Comhairle Ceantair
Belfast IRSP
###ENDS###
