Galway consultants are to march from Merlin Park to Galway city centre to express concerns over the run-down of Merlin Park hospital services.

In a statement the “Galway says NO to Health Cuts” campaign welcomed the forthcoming action by Galway consultants.

“The campaign will be supporting this march as we need to raise awareness of what is happening to our public hospitals and health services in Galway,” a spokesperson for the group explained. "We will be asking people to sign petition sheets against the health care cuts and join the campaign fight-back before our services are decimated.”

Money for the public health system continues to be mismanaged by the HSE, while much of it goes into the private sector through the National Treatment Purchase Fund. Instead of improving public hospitals, the HSE is paying for patients to be treated in private hospitals.

115 beds are empty between Galway University and Merlin Park hospitals according to the official figures for July 2010. There are now an alarming 29,974 people awaiting treatment on outpatient waiting lists between these two public hospitals.

It seems to “Galway Says No to Health Cuts” that there is a concerted campaign by Minister Mary Harney to maintain high numbers on waiting lists in the hope that when patients get transferred through the National Treatment Purchase Fund to private care that they will OPT OUT OF THE PUBLIC SYSTEM ALTOGETHER, either because of FRUSTRATION OR FEAR, AND PAY for EXPENSIVE PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE cover INSTEAD.

The excuse that there is no money for the public system is wearing thin FOR MANY REASONS.
WHEN WE LOOK AT THE ISSUE OF HSE WEST ACCOMODATION WE DISCOVER THAT 70 buildings in Galway City and County are presently being rented by HSE West. RENTAL for just two of these buildings alone costs €1.2 million annually. At the same time, buildings purchased by the HSE West and the former “Western Health Board” remain empty, for example, No. 1 The Mass Path. This building was purchased in 2000 and has remained empty ever since. Added to this is the fact that there are acres of UNUSED land in Merlin Park THAT COULD BE UTILISED AND SIMULTANEOUSLY CREATE BUILDING JOBS.

“Galway says NO to Health Cuts” is aiming to establish a broad, city-wide campaign of health workers, patients, trade unions and communities coming together to say that "enough is enough". To this end there will be a protest and rally for everyone to become involved in on Saturday 25th September assembling at Galway Cathedral at 2pm for a march to University Hospital Galway.People will have an opportunity to demonstrate over all of the attacks on our hospitals and community health services, from ward closures to home-help cut-backs.

Decent health care is a right and a necessity. It should not be used to maximise the profits of private health clinics and insurance companies. As the recent attempted cuts to respite care in Galway and around the country have shown, these are not just isolated one-off cuts that the health service can easily recover from. Instead, this is part of a sustained attack on our public health services. The 1000 health care jobs and a whole hospital currently at stake are not by any means the extent of the cut-backs. In fact they are only the beginning, with a further €700 million expected to be cut from the health budget in the next Government announcements in December.

There is enough proof already that there is a concerted consistent effort by the FF/Green/Harney government to decimate our public health care system to the point of no recovery. If you don not want to allow this to happen that please make every effort to join the demonstration on Saturday 25th September @ 2pm from the Cathedral to Galway University Hospital. We must make our united voices heard.

For more information or to get involved in the campaign please contact 085 7366971