Trade unions group campaigning for Irish Unity advocates new, ‘national health service’

 

Trade unionists for a New and United Ireland at their Linen Hall Library launch earlier this week. Pictured are Former Siptu division organiser Christy Maquillage, Debbie Coyle of Unison, Mick Halpenny of Siptu and spokesman Ruairi Creaney. Picture by Mal McCann

A NEW group of trade unionists campaigning for Irish unity believe a national health service would be essential to the success of any new Ireland. More than 150 labour activists from north and south have come together to form Trade Unionists for a New and United Ireland – or Tunui. The new movement, which includes several union general secretaries from across the island, and Liz Deasy and Karen Gearon, veterans of the Dunnes Stores anti-apartheid strike in 1984, advocate a United Ireland with a new constitution that puts workers’ rights at its heart. The group was launched officially earlier this week with events in Dublin and Belfast. The Irish News (and this blog covered) yesterday carried a full-page advert from Tunui, calling on trades unionists across Ireland to begin engaging in the debate for Irish unity.

‘Working-class people paid the price for not having an input into the shaping of the Republic a century ago but the labour movement isn’t going to wait this time around – Ruarí Creaney

Tunui spokesman and trade union official Ruairí Creaney said that with an overall membership on both sides of the border of more than 800,000, the movement was “Ireland’s largest civic society organisation”. “If the trade union movement didn’t get involved in the debate around Irish unity then its vision would be ignored in any new Ireland that emerges,” he said. “Working-class people paid the price for not having an input into the shaping of the Republic a century ago but the labour movement isn’t going to wait this time around – we will help lead the debate.” Mr Creaney said he “wouldn’t ask anyone to join the southern state as it is now”.

He said elements of civic nationalism had presented Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Simon Coveney as protecting nationalist rights in the North. “But as trade unionists we know that the people in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are the Irish Tories – they’re not going to defend the rights of working people,” he said. “Likewise, healthcare is a human right that is denied by these parties.” He said the group believed in free healthcare at the point of delivery. “We recognize that people in the north, especially from a unionist background, have real reservations about Irish unity, and I myself have reservations about the southern state because of the lack of social services and lack of healthcare,” he said. “We recognize that and that’s why the group is called Trade Unionists for a New and United Ireland – we want a totally new Ireland – we want to take the best of both states and discard the worst of both.” At Tuesday’s launch in Belfast,

Mr Creaney said the voices of unionist workers must be heard in the debate on ending Irish partition. “I don’t think the unionist working-class are as afraid of this issue as the media and others make it out to be,” he said. “It is patronising and dismissive of our unionist brothers and sisters.”

With many thanks to: The Irish News and John Manley Political Correspondent for the original story

300 GAGGING ORDERS SILENCE PUBLIC-SECTOR WORKERS SINCE 2009 !

‘It is a matter that the NI executive needs to address in terms of accountability – Kieran Bannon.

THREE hundred so-called gagging orders have been used to silence public-sector workers – the majority former police officers – since 2009. The orders can be used to prevent staff speaking publicly to the press about their former employer.

Also known as confidentiality clauses, they are usally agreed when an employee is made redundent or leaves an employer following a workplace issue or disagreement. More than 230 police officers and 50 staff members at the Stormont executive agreed to confidentiality clauses. The clauses can be used in settlement agreements to stop industrial tribunal cases being heard and can cost the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds. In March the British government banned gagging orders for NHS employees after it emerged that more than £18 million had been spent on silencing 600 staff. The issue has caused uproar at Westminster, with communities secretary Eric Pickles warning against using “under-the-counter pay-offs to silence departing staff”.

Civil service union Nipsa expressed concerns over public funds being used “simply to silence individuals”. Kieran Bannon, assistant general secretary of Nipsa, said that confidentiality clauses can “undermine the principles of accountability and propriety”. “It is a matter that the NI executive needs to address in terms of accountability, firstly in relation to the use of public funds but equally the accountability of public-sector employers for their actions,” he said. A total of 236 PSNI officers agreed to confidentiality clauses as part of employment tribunal settlements. Almost 200 of these were part of a class action settled earlier this year, according to a freedom of information request submitted by  The Irish News. The Department for Social Development (DSD) accounted for the vast majority of the confidentiality clauses used in the executive, with 39 imposed since 2009.

Five staff members in the Department of Agriclture and Rural Development agreed to confidentiality clauses as part of compromise agreements. The Department of Health also used confidentiality clauses in two out-of-court settlements relating to industrial tribunal cases. Other public bodies also revealed some employees agreed to gagging orders over the past four years. Eight assembly staff members agreed to confidentiality clauses. None of the cases prevented employees from whistleblowing. A total of 16 Western Health and Social Care Trust employees and one ambulance service staff member agreed to confidentiality clauses since 2009. One Belfast trust employee agreed to a confidentiality clause as part of the termination arrangement. The trust said the clause was mutually agreed and phrased to “protect both the employer and employee”, with no specific clauses in relation to the press. According to employment lewyers, most compromise agreements include confidentiality clauses. They can be used to bar employees from talking publicly or to the press about their former employer of the circumstances under which they left. Mr Bannon said confidentiality clauses usually form part of compromise agreements and are used in tribunal settlements to stop cases being heard. “Nipsa would have concern if public funds were used simply to silence individuals,” he said. “The use of confidentiality clauses means the general workforce and the public are not aware of the actions of the employer and in a case involving public-sector staff it is even more important that the employer is held to account for its actions given the potential impact on public funds.” No figures were available to determine how much was spent in the north’s staff settlements that used confidentiality clauses. A DSD spokesman said : “We are not in a position to make an informed comment how this department’s figures compare to others. DSD is, however, the largest of the Northern Ireland Civil Service departments.”

With many thanks to : Brendan Hughes, Irish News.

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NHS reforms: GPs losing faith, BBC poll suggests

GPs are taking charge of the majority of the NHS budget under the reforms

The number of GPs who believe that the government’s health reforms in England will improve patient care is falling, a BBC poll suggests.

Just 12% agreed that putting GP-led groups in charge of the budget would mean patients saw a “noticeable” improvement.

That figure was 23% when a similar poll was carried out in September 2010.

A majority of the 814 GPs polled also believed there would be more rationing of care because of financial pressures.

In total, 83% said there would be an increase in rationing in their area.

Ministers have cited the financial challenges facing the health service as one of the reasons they have pushed ahead with the changes in the face of mounting opposition.

While 12% of family doctors agreed that GP-led commissioning – the buying and planning of services on a local level – would improve care, some 55% said they disagreed and 33% said they did not know whether or not it would.

The polling also asked about another controversial aspect of the reforms – the role of the private sector.

Asked about the role of private companies in the NHS, 87% agreed the changes set out in the health bill would lead to them having a bigger role.

The King’s Fund, a health think tank, said the poll highlighted once again the challenge facing the government in carrying the NHS with it as it implemented the health reforms.

“GPs will be in the vanguard of this – their commitment is essential for implementing clinical commissioning, the government’s big idea for ensuring that care meets the needs of patients,” said chief executive Chris Ham.

“The public will judge the government’s stewardship of the NHS on the basis of whether patient care improves, so ministers should be concerned that many GPs fear that care will get worse rather than better in the years ahead.”

Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the British Medical Association‘s GPs committee, said the findings came as no surprise and reflected what doctors had been telling them directly.

“Increasingly, GPs are worrying that they will be blamed for making the hard decisions that may need to be made in order to meet the £20bn savings target set by the government. The government needs to be much more upfront with the public about the scale of savings that need to be made and why.

“If those who will have to deliver the latest health reforms are unconvinced and reluctant, the government should take notice of what they say.”

April changes

In April next year the control of about £60bn of the NHS budget in England is due to pass to GP-led groups that will plan and buy most routine healthcare for their local community.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

Branwen Jeffreys Health correspondent, BBC News

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More than anyone else in the NHS, GPs are central to the government’s plans for the NHS.

If you’re a patient in England, your surgery will have agreed to work with others in your area. From April 2013, these GP-led groups – 240 of them – will be taking control of £60bn of the NHS budget.

So what GPs think matters, because they’re essential to making this new system work.

This polling by ComRes suggests a deepening scepticism among GPs that putting them in charge will improve patient care.

Some believe they have been given too little power. Others are worried they’re taking over as the NHS faces the lowest growth in its budget since the 1950s.

They will be taking over at a time of unprecedented financial pressure. The latest government statistics suggest the NHS is currently managing to meet all waiting targets and has found the savings needed in the last financial year. The polling for the BBC suggests considerable anxiety about what lies ahead.

Almost half of the GPs, 49%, thought the NHS would not be able to go on meeting the 18-week target for routine treatments. Just 22% thought that it would be possible. A similar picture emerged for A&E departments, with 42% agreeing the NHS would need to close or downgrade some in the next five years.

The health secretary Andrew Lansley said the Health and Social Care Act would hand power to GPs, put patients at the heart of the NHS, and reduce needless bureaucracy.

“Of course, every important reform to the NHS, under whatever government, has had its critics from within the system. But putting GPs in leadership positions in the NHS will mean they can improve services for their entire local population. Patients want doctors to make decisions about their care, not managers, and that is what our reforms will deliver.”

Andy Burnham, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said the findings were significant.

“Most GPs are clear that the NHS is going in the wrong direction and that the government’s changes will make it worse not better. These results echo the concerns Labour has consistently raised and flatly contradict the reassurances given by the prime minister to get his Bill through.”

The poll interviews were carried out by ComRes for the BBC between 21 and 30 March.

WITH MANY THANKS TO : BBC NEWS.

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