Healthcare decisions being made to meet austerity budgets not patient need 

Commitment and loyalty of workers to public healthcare system being exploited by management 

July 23rd: Unite National Officer with responsibility for Health, Kevin McAdam, expressed his anger at comments made by Valerie Watts, Health and Social Care Board Chief Executive Officer on BBC radio.

“The comments by Ms Watts come as no surprise but their brazen nature reveal a shocking lack of responsibility within senior NHS management in Northern Ireland.

“By her own admission, not only did the HSCB chief executive and her board know of the increased demand for health services and clinicians but they actively chose to do nothing about it.

“The result is a health service which is failing patients and more and more dependent on exploiting the goodwill and commitment of a workforce stretched past breaking point.  

“Both Westminster and the Stormont Executive must fulfil their responsibility to fund the health service adequately in order to meet the community’s needs not to meet budget targets. People pay enough taxes to expect a publicly funded Health service.

“The saddest part of this story is even if we were to start today to fix the problem, it would be seven years before we got back to last year’s waiting list. Northern Ireland had a world beating orthopaedic service which an irresponsible management and our political leaders have undermined”, Mr McAdam concluded.