The following is a speech at the recent protest to Save St Luke’s hospital given by Maire O’Connor (Press Officer, Health Services Action Group & author of “Emergency: Irish hospitals in chaos”
The news that St Luke’s Hospital was going to close was first heard from a property developer, I was told. Some time later, in July 2005, Mary Harney made the official announcement. Since then, there have been ongoing protests, all ignored by a Government increasingly out of touch with the people.
But whether or not property developers knew before the rest of us that Luke’s was to close, there is no doubting this Government’s intention to privatise cancer care. We have been trading in health care since 1953, when public hospitals were first allowed to divide their beds into public, private and semi-private. But is it only in the last 17 years that we have seen the galloping privatisation of our health services. Cancer care has been singled out as one of the profitable areas.
Posted by savestlukes 