Further cutbacks threaten patients

SIPTU has warned that the risk to patients posed by cutbacks in the health service will continue next year because of further budget shortfalls.

And it has also said that if the Health Service Executive (HSE) makes any attempt to undermine the rights of its members working in the sector, the union would support any action up to and including full scale industrial action to deal with it.

Speaking at the union’s biennial delegate conference in Tralee yesterday, the union’s chief health negotiator, Matt Merrigan, said given the way the economy is expected to be structured next year, there would only be a 4.5% increase in the health budget when, in order to keep up with inflation and increased costs, that percentage should be closer to 8%.