Kenny urges elderly not to protest over health cuts

ENDA KENNY urged sick and elderly people not to demonstrate in the streets against health cuts which he claimed are unavoidable.

The Taoiseach was responding to opposition warnings that the Government was putting vulnerable people in danger, especially pensioners, because of its spending priorities.

Mr Kenny said he remembered the scenes of elderly people, including those in wheelchairs, protesting against proposed medical card changes in 2008 and did not want to trigger a repeat.

“Elderly people were out before when a decision was made about medical cards. They were very articulate and vociferous and knew exactly where the sore point was. Some of those people were in wheelchairs. I do not want to see that,” said Mr Kenny.

The Taoiseach told the Dáil the country could no longer pretend things could go on the way they used to, and said the €13bn health budget needed to be restructured and targeted to avoid waste and duplication.

“That means focusing now on the provision of primary care centres, where people do not have to go to accident and emergency units in the first place, and where there is clearly an emphasis on community care,” he told TDs.

His comments were in response to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, who said: “Nothing can be more iconic in what is going wrong at present than to see elderly people in their beds on picket lines. The most vulnerable elderly people are out in the cold on picket lines campaigning to have their nursing home space reserved and protected.”

Mr Adams claimed patients were being sacrificed for the sake of a failed economic bailout plan.

Government plans would mean between 550 to 900 community care beds closed, he said, with the loss of acute hospital beds, and cuts to disability and mental health services.

“The health and the welfare of people is to be sacrificed by Fine Gael and Labour in pursuit of a failed economic strategy that is destroying public services, employment and economic growth,” he told the Dáil.

More than 600 people will lose home help as a result of cuts, Independent TD Finian McGrath warned during leader’s questions.

Health Minister James Reilly said he regretted that colon cancer screenings would be delayed as a result of the cuts.