New contracts for the co-location of private and public hospitals should not be signed by the Government and the current negotiation process should be halted, Sinn Féin said today.
Speaking in Dublin as the party unveiled its health policy for the general election, Sinn
Sinn Féin party chair, Mary Lou McDonald
party chair Mary Lou McDonald said the party would use any influence it had after the general election to stop the process.
She said the party opposed the "wholesale privatisation" of the Irish health service.
"We have called already on the Government and the Minister for Health in particular to stop in her tracks. Contracts should not be signed at this juncture. There is no mandate from the people of this country for the wholesale privatisation of the health service," she said.
Ms McDonald said this was a "potentially disastrous" route for Irish medicine and the healthcare service, given there was already such a "two-tier system".
Sinn Féin handed out a "pledge card" detailing its 10 health pledges. They include the provision of a medical card for every child under 18 and the regionalisation of radiotherapy services. Sinn Féin also said it would provide 3,000 extra acute hospital beds and implement a "robust plan" to eradicate the MRSA bug.
Ms McDonald was accompanied by the party president Gerry Adams and chief negotiator Martin McGuinness.