UNISON Northern Ireland has described health minister Edwin Poots’s call to charge patients at A&Es who have abused alcohol or drugs as “cheap-shot publicity” and showed that the health service is not “safe in his hands”.
Regional secretary Patricia McKeown responded to the comments by saying: “This latest cheap-shot publicity from health minister Edwin Poots is a further indication that our health service is not safe in his hands. It is time for him to step down.
“Many of his pronouncements to date simply underscore his desire to introduce charging for health care. This is political dogma and has nothing to do with the delivery of safe, high-quality universal health care.”
Ms McKeown observed that: “He would do well to consider his own multi-million pound expenditure on accountancy firms and other forms of private consultancy which have resulted in unworkable Transforming Your Care proposals.
“He would do well to consider the additional multi-million pound strain put on the health budget by unnecessary tiers of bureaucracy such as the current regional health board, the patient client council and six separate trusts.
“He would do well to reflect on his multi-million pound expenditure on private medical firms instead of investment in the NHS.”
And she continued: “He needs to face up to the financial rip offs experienced by the rapid expansion of private home care, which is at the core of his Transforming Your Care proposals.
“He might wish to make these figures public so that we can all have a real debate. And where next for his crazy proposals?
“Do we check every accident patient to see if they are guilty of contributory negligence? It would be more to the point if the minister would fight his corner with the executive to secure the reversal of the swingeing budget cuts suffered by our health service since 2007.
“It would be more to the point if he invested in a genuine public health model built on prevention and challenging health inequalities.
“Only when he does this will the strain on our acute health system be eased.”
