The inability of governments in Ireland – North & South – to deliver healthcare in any meaningful way is nothing short of a national scandal.
While waiting lists continue to rise, outcomes continue to deteriorate and hundreds of millions of public money is being funnelled into private coffers by people driven to breaking point, we see one example after another of the public being taken for a ride by construction firms who inexplicably keep being rewarded with new contracts.
Speaking on the issue, Lasair Dhearg’s Belfast Chairperson, Amy Margaret, said, “At a time when women’s health provision is already in crisis, in Belfast, the new Maternity Hospital is more than 10 years late and the cost has nearly doubled to more than £100m; It may not open for years. This is affected by the same issues as the Critical Care Building just next door – more than a decade late and millions over budget. Meanwhile, a major mental health centre at Belfast City Hospital – only opened less than a decade ago at a cost of more than £30m and which treats some of the most vulnerable patients – will have to close for repairs which will cost more than £10m. The new Children’s Hospital, which only began construction last year, was meant to be open in 2020. It was first announced in 2013 and will now cost almost £700m, more than two and a half times the original estimate.”
Amy continued, “The firm behind these last 2 examples – Graham BAM Healthcare Partnership (GBHP) – were also involved in the disastrous National Children’s Hospital in Dublin which is now almost €1.6 billion over budget and which still has no credible opening date after nearly ten years of construction. Unbelievably, they were still awarded the contract. These two governments are content flushing our money down the drain to fund the same massive, seemingly untouchable construction companies. It’s about time that the construction of national infrastructure projects was brought under the control of the people – only in a Socialist Republic.”
