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Statements by Our Candidates in the 2005 Elections

Oisín Kehoe

Two tier health system is damaging children's health

Sunday 17th April 2005

The Derry parents of a four year old child with suspected tonsilitis who had been told they would have to wait up to a year for a consultation and treatment at Altnagelvin were shocked to learn that the exact same doctors would complete the treatment within two weeks if the parents could afford to go private.

Highlighting the case, Socialist Environmental Alliance (SEA) council candidate Oisín Kehoe hit out at the two tier system that was playing with children's lives.  "There is clearly one rule for the rich and another for the rest of us.  If you can afford to go private you get treated almost instantly but if not, your child's health and therefore early development suffers.  If those same resources and doctors are available they should not be reserved only for those who can afford them. 

  "As far as the SEA is concerned, health is a human right and not a privilege and should be both well funded and freely available equally to all."

According to Mr Kehoe, hospitals and education have taken a back seat to government spending on war.  "Look at the cuts in education and the closing down of the hospital in Omagh.  Our services are being deliberately run down all around us and their ownership delivered into the hands of private interests, who the government then have to bail out with our money when things then go pear shaped.  PFIs as introduced by all the parties on the former Assembly Executive, are bad for the public's pocket and health.

Mr Kehoe concluded, "What the SEA wants is a caring, child-centred society that pours its wealth not into wars or the pockets of a few but back into parks, schools, hospitals and sufficent housing for ordinary people.





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