Motion no: 35
This conference, noting: six years of unparalleled cutbacks, both in terms of financial and human resources, imposed upon the public health service; the resulting contraction of essential health services, as a result, causing hardship and upset to ordinary working people and their families; the exacerbation of the two-tiered health system, in this country, resulting in those who can afford to pay accessing healthcare much quicker than those unable to afford health insurance; this contraction of services compromises the environment in which our future essential health service staff are trained, educated, orientated and developed; causing excessive workloads, and intolerable working environments for frontline staff, severely compromising their ability to deliver safe, efficient and prompt care to the most needy and vulnerable in our society; and the consequent failure to safeguard the human right to health of all our people as enshrined in the UN International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, which Ireland has ratified; directs the incoming Executive Council to pursue the following: the commencement of a nationwide, sustained, public awareness campaign explaining the social good, for society, resulting from the availability of a world class, single tiered accessible public health service a sustained engagement, with all political parties, to end the galloping race, towards privatisation/outsourcing, in our health system particularly with regard to care of the elderly and primary care services; seek, from all political parties, ahead of the forthcoming general election in 2016, a policy which would support the introduction of this world class public health service funded through a progressive equitable taxation system; andthe required investment, in our health system, which will allow it produce the required number of well-educated health staff, with pay and conditions reflecting their expertise, which will ensure we can meet our manpower demands into the future. Adopted
Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation
