Health and Social Services – Time for Radical Change

Our health and social care system is once again awash with a series of reviews. This continuous review syndrome has been used as a smokescreen to avoid the radical change necessary to produce a public health system to meet the needs of the people. Meanwhile, our energies have been diverted into unnecessary campaigns to stop the closure of residential homes, the erosion of in-house homecare services and the continuous threat to hospital services.

While we have been largely successful in these campaigns, we cannot continue with a model of healthcare based on an accountancy framework, rather than a public health framework, which increasingly puts public health workers and their unions in conflict with decision-makers. The time for radical change is now.

Conference notes that:

• Health inequalities are increasing from a base of existing crisis, and remain unaddressed;
• The health of the people faces increasing damage from ongoing austerity;
• Ongoing cuts have reached crisis level and, despite commitment and professional standards from all health workers, the provision of many services is at the point of compromise to patient safety;
• The financial envelope is unsustainable and under-resourced, while performance on key metrics is in a tail spin of decline;
• The current commissioner-provider split structures are demonstrably not fit for purpose, and cannot deliver performance, standards of care, financial stability or address inequalities.

Conference therefore calls on Congress to continue its campaign calling for radical reform in which the voice of health workers is heard loud and clear. Campaign priorities should include:

• The immediate restoration of the Partnership Forum, which enables trade union input and contribution into all key policy issues, including those addressed by the Donaldson Report;
• The progressive elimination of heath inequalities through a public health model;
• An end to austerity cuts;
• Workforce inclusion on the basis of respect for trade unions and their members;
• Ending the commissioner provider split and the consequent restoration of ‘Trusts’ to a collaborative healthcare system;
• Transparent funding and resource allocation not only in health but across Government Departments;
• Cessation of outsourcing of health and care services, and the return in-house of privatised services;
• Health and social care services free at the point of use;
• Honesty of information to workers, patients and clients, reversing the current weakening of performance standards in an attempt to gloss over the current crises;
• The restoration of health as the number one priority in the Programme for Government.