Ulster Unionist Party Leader Robin Swann MLA has paid tribute to all the staff within the health service, both current and past, as the NHS turns 70 tomorrow.
Robin Swann said:
“The NHS is one the of the UK’s most important and treasured institutions. It has played an extraordinary role in all of our lives and there is much about it to be immensely grateful for.
“For the last seven decades the NHS has been a global leader in the delivery of healthcare and has played a major part in the eradication of devastating diseases such as polio, as well as developing pioneering treatments for a host of other ailments. Yet, even this week as it is set to mark its 70th anniversary, its first priority will always remain on the patients within its care.
“I pay tribute to the staff throughout the NHS. Illness and emergencies don’t work by time so we must never forget that working for the NHS often entails significant personal sacrifice by its staff. It can also be an immensely challenging job, supporting people and their families through the darkest of times. The staff often work well beyond their required hours and even when off-shift their skills can be the difference between life and death. The 64,000 staff who work for the NHS across Northern Ireland really are our everyday heroes.
“Whilst there is much to celebrate I am also acutely aware that the service locally has never before faced such a precarious future.
“Many key targets covering cancer, emergency care, inpatient and outpatient care are all routinely missed, with some apparently in an unmanageable nosedive. Whilst doctors in England are calling for leadership heads to role because of delays there, the situation is in fact far, far worse in Northern Ireland and little if anything is being done at a high level to rectify it here.
“The simple reality is the waiting times we have here simply would not be tolerated anywhere else in the UK.
“Staff morale is also worryingly low, and it hasn’t been helped at all by the fact that NHS staff here are likely to miss out on the 6.5% pay increase announced in March, as a result of the continuing political stalemate at Stormont. In fact, there are no guarantees that the additional money coming to Northern Ireland as a result of higher health spending in the rest of the UK will even be ring-fenced for the NHS here and that’s just not good enough. Without our staff we simply wouldn’t have an NHS.
“Nonetheless, despite all the current challenges and pressures facing the service, on Thursday I think we should take a few moments out of our day to say a heartfelt thankyou to the NHS and all the staff that work within it.”