Latest News
3 April, 2007
A Sinn Féin delegation led by Sinn Féin health spokespersons Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD and Caral Ni Chulain MLA will today meet with Tim O'Malley, the Junior Minister at the Department of Health in relation to the chronic problem of suicide. Also on the delegation will be Mary Lou McDonald MEP, Joanne Spain Dublin Mid West and Jennifer McCann MLA. Read full article
2 April, 2007
Newly appoint Sinn Féin Health Spokesperson, North Belfast MLA Carál Ní Chuilín, speaking ahead of a meeting with Tim O Malley, the junior minister in the 26 County Department of Health, tomorrow in Dublin has accused the
both the Irish and British government of failing deliver the all-Ireland response to suicide. Read full article
2 April, 2007
Blanchardstown Sinn Féin Councillor Felix Gallagher has confirmed that Sinn Féin in Government will not proceed with the 'co-location' privatization plans for the Connolly Hospital site. Read full article
31 March, 2007
Dublin MEP Mary Lou McDonald speaking as dozens of Sinn Féin protests are taking place in counties across Ireland against the government's hospital co-location policy said: "Today I want to put the property developers tendering for these private for profit hospitals on notice that if Sinn Féin is in government following the General Election we will not allow this policy to be implemented.' Read full article
30 March, 2007
Sinn Féin Health Spokesperson, Upper Bann MLA John O'Dowd has welcomed the call from Macmillan Cancer for the introduction of free prescriptions Read full article
30 March, 2007
Sinn Féin will tomorrow (Saturday 31st) hold a day of action against the government's hospital co-location policy. Dozens of events will take place in counties across Ireland - protests, information distribution, street theatre and much more. Read full article
30 March, 2007
Outside the GPO after the meeting, as part of Sinn Féin's week long Healthcare for All campaign, Party Chairperson Mary Lou McDonald was joined by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness to launch Sinn Féin's Pledge-Card on Healthcare. Read full article
29 March, 2007
Sinn Féin Newry and Armagh MLA Cathal Boylan has said that he shares the great concerns of many that Dunlarg Nursing Home in Keady faces potential reduction of service provision and ultimately closure, after it was learnt that the home, which is owned by Southern Cross Healthcare, may be considering closing one of its wards. Read full article
29 March, 2007
Sinn Féin Dáil leader and Health spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD has said the Minister for Health Mary Harney is forcing through her private for-profit hospital co-location plan against widespread opposition. Read full article
28 March, 2007
Dublin Sinn Féin party representatives and activists today took to the streets throughout the city demanding an end to the government's two-tier health system. Today's actions were part of the party's 'Health for All' campaign which was launched yesterday at Leinster House. Read full article
28 March, 2007
Sinn Féin Dáil leader and Health spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD has described as "outrageous" the claim by the Taoiseach in the Dáil that the Government has "a mandate to build additional private hospitals". Read full article
28 March, 2007
West Tyrone Sinn Féin MLA Claire McGill has said that proposals by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS) to transfer Cancer Screening and Diagnostic Services from Altnagelvin to Belfast would have devastating and far-reaching consequences. Read full article
27 March, 2007
Sinn Féin Health Spokesperson, Upper Bann MLA John O'Dowd has warned against buying prescription drugs online, saying patients could be taking serious risks with their health Read full article
27 March, 2007
Sinn Féin Donegal Councillor Padraig MacLochlainn today said that 'For the vast majority of the population, emergency services should be located less than 45 minutes travel time away. No one should be more than one hour's travel time from an A&E Unit, when the three critical access factors are taken into account: hospital location, road conditions and ambulance provision.' Read full article
27 March, 2007
Challenging the Minister for Health Mary Harney's seat in the forthcoming election, Sinn Féin Dublin Mid West candidate Joanne Spain will unveil the party's plans.
"The issue of health is a major one in my constituency, not least because our minister for health Mary Harney is a sitting TD," said Ms Spain.
"People in Dublin Mid West feel personally let down by the minister and the route she has chosen to take healthcare in this state. Read full article
27 March, 2007
Sinn Féin Dáil Group Leader and Health Spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD today announced details of his party's proposals to tackle the crisis in hospital services. Deputy Ó Caoláin said that Sinn Féin will exercise its expected increased political strength after the General Election to press for dramatic improvements in the health services. Read full article
21 March, 2007
Speaking at a protest against Health Minister Mary Harney's hospital co-location plan at the Private Healthcare Conference in Dublin today Sinn Féin Councillor Dáithí Doolan said healthcare should be a right and
not a commodity for making people rich. Read full article
20 March, 2007
Sinn Féin Newry Armagh MLA Mickey Brady, speaking after attending the AGM of Newry and Mourne Alzheimer's Group, has said that the demands on those looking after someone with Alzheimers were enormous. Read full article
20 March, 2007
Commenting on the Taoiseach's response to his Leader's Question on the Government's hospital 'co-location' plan, Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caolain TD said: "The Taoiseach's reply confirms that the Government is preparing to sign these deals with developers of private for-profit hospitals before the General Election. Read full article
19 March, 2007
Sinn Féin Newry and Armagh Sinn Fein Assembly election candidate Mickey Brady has highlighted the proliferation of cases of children with Down's syndrome in the area said that there is a need for focused investigations and research into the issue. Read full article
19 March, 2007
Sinn Fein Cllr and General Election Candidate Joe Reilly responding to an article in the Sunday Business Post said: "The report in The Sunday Business Post (March18th, 2007) on Our Lady's of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and the health services in the North East again high-lights what many of us have been saying for a long time, that the HSE is blindly following a failed agenda that is under-minding patient care and confidence in the health service in the North East". Read full article
14 March, 2007
Sinn Féin Health spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD has said the Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney should intervene immediately to prevent the total collapse of the free scheme of dental treatment for medical card holders. Read full article
9 March, 2007
Speaking after attending the lunch time protest organised by the Irish Nurses Organisation and the Psychiatric Nurses Association at the Mater Hospital today Sinn Féin MEP and election candidate for Dublin Central Mary Lou McDonald wished the nurses well in the talks which begin on Monday and said she looks forward to a favourable outcome which guarantees fair pay and a thirty-five hour working week for nurses. Read full article
4 March, 2007
Sinn Féin Dublin Central candidate Mary Lou McDonald MEP has called on the Minister for Health Mary Harney to scrap plans to allocate land at public hospital sites to the developers of private hospitals before contracts are signed and the State is bound by legal agreements. She was responding to reports in today's newspapers that the final negotiations on private hospitals to be located in the grounds of public hospitals are due to take place this week. Read full article
3 March, 2007
Sinn Féin Dáil Group Leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD speaking as he opened the health session of the party's Ard Fheis said "Sinn Féin has led the opposition to the privatisation of our hospitals and we will continue to do so. One planned private hospital that will benefit from Government tax breaks is going to have 100 separate private rooms, each with a personal computer and a television. And while they are building up the private health sector they are downgrading our local hospitals throughout the country." Read full article
3 March, 2007
Sinn Féin candidate for Dublin Mid West Joanne Spain said: Mary Harney has pushed the private health care system to the top of the agenda. And now she is refusing to bring nurses conditions into the 21st century. If this decision was put to the Irish people, I know and she knows, what they would say. And they'll be saying it to her in her constituency of Dublin Mid West this May when they give the nurses their vote of support and send Mary Harney packing." Read full article
3 March, 2007
Gerry Adams Presidential Address at the 2007 Ard Fheis set out the party's priorities for government, north and south. Below is the health section from his address. Read full article
27 February, 2007
Speaking this morning from Derry's Altnagelvin hospital, Sinn Féin Foyle Assembly election candidate, Waterside Councillor Lynn Fleming has urged local health chiefs to prioritise the health needs of the region and to ensure that Altnagelvin builds upon existing services of healthcare delivery. Read full article
27 February, 2007
Sinn Féin Health Spokesperson, Upper Bann Assembly election Candidate John O'Dowd has said that the latest figures released by the London School of Economics and Institute of Psychiatry on a study of Dementia shows there needs to be a radical rethink on both helping those with the illness and providing the correct financial support for care that is needed. Read full article
27 February, 2007
Sinn Féin TD Arthur Morgan has said the Taoiseach is trying to deceive the public about the Government's plan to allocate land at public hospitals to developers to build private for-profit hospitals. He has called on the Taoiseach to set the Dáil record straight and to admit that it plans to sign contracts for these private hospital developments before the General Election. Read full article
26 February, 2007
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams MP today praised the efforts of all those, but especially the families, who are working hard to raise awareness around the increasing problem of suicide. Read full article
26 February, 2007
Sinn Féin Foyle Assembly election candidate Martina Anderson has said she is greatly concerned about the latest figures released by the charity Childline, that children as young as five years of age had contacted the organisation about mental health problems. Read full article
23 February, 2007
Dublin Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald has said private health insurance is not the way forward for healthcare in Ireland. Read full article
23 February, 2007
Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe has said the failure of the medical council to protect the public was seen in the scandal of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Unit at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda where dozens of women were mutilated by Michael Neary. Read full article
22 February, 2007
The resumption of the BCG vaccine programme by the Health Service Executive (HSE) has been welcomed by Sinn Fein Dublin North East Sinn Féin candidate Larry O'Toole. Read full article
22 February, 2007
Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris has said the rushing through of emergency legislation in the Dáil to shut down risk equalisation loopholes has exposed the "inequitable and inefficient way in which our health services are funded". Read full article
21 February, 2007
Sinn Féin Dáil candidate Cllr. Larry O'Toole, who represents much of the area served by Beaumont Hospital, has said the crisis there in recent days was a recurring one "that has been repeated year after year and shows the total failure of the Government's response to the drastic situation in A&E in our larger hospitals". He said many of his constituents were now more afraid than ever to attend the hospital because of A&E overcrowding and the threat of MRSA. Read full article
17 February, 2007
Sinn Féin County Councillor and general election candidate, John Dwyer, will be joined by local party members for a healthcare protest outside the PD conference at Whites Hotel, Wexford at 2pm tomorrow (Saturday). Read full article
16 February, 2007
North Antrim Sinn Féin Assembly election candidate Daithí McKay has expressed concern after receiving a leaked internal memo from the Ambulance Service to Operations Directorate Command and Control concerning ambulance provision in North and East Antrim. Read full article
16 February, 2007
Sinn Féin Newry Armagh MP Conor Murphy and South Down Assembly election candidate Caitriona Ruane are to meet with the Chief Executive of the Ambulance Service in Belfast on Monday to discus concerns about the replacement of ambulances operating in the Newry and Mourne area and also the issue of ambulance cover in South Armagh. Read full article
16 February, 2007
Sinn Féin TD for Louth Arthur Morgan has said he is "incredulous" at the statement of HSE Chief Brendan Drumm that additional beds are not needed in our hospital system. Deputy Morgan said Professor Drumm's statement was contradicted by the internal HSE report on Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda exposed earlier this week which showed a quarter of all medical admissions spending their entire stay in A&E. Read full article
14 February, 2007
Dublin Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh has called on Health Minister Mary Harney to scrap her plan to allocate land at public hospital sites to the developers of private hospitals before contracts are signed and the State is bound by legal agreements. Deputy Ó Snodaigh was speaking today at a protest organised by Dublin Sinn Féin outside the Head Office of the Progressive Democrats. Read full article
14 February, 2007
Sinn Féin Waterford City Councillor David Cullinane has called on Health Minister Mary Harney and the H.S.E. to immediately clarify how and when radiotherapy services will be provided at W.R.H. Read full article
13 February, 2007
Louth Sinn Féin TD Arthur Morgan is to demand Health Minister Mary Harney's resignation in the Dáil following revelations of atrocious hospital conditions in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. Read full article
12 February, 2007
Sinn Féin Agriculture and Rural Development Spokesperson, Fermanagh South Tyrone Assembly candidate Michelle Gildernew MP has said that the latest proposals out for consultation on Pathology services in our hospitals provides further evidence of the erosion of services in our rural hospitals. Read full article
9 February, 2007
As tens of thousands of nurses and midwives begin balloting today on a potential campaign of work to rule and withdrawal of labour, Sinn Féin Dáil leader and Health spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin has called on the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and the Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney to ensure that nurses receive the reduced working week and pay improvements which they are seeking. Read full article
7 February, 2007
Sinn Féin Health spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD has said that the turning away of babies and young children from medical centres because of a lack of the BCG vaccine is a disgrace. Read full article
7 February, 2007
Sinn Fein Health spokesperson and Assembly candidate John O'Dowd has called on the Irish and British Governments to move rapidly ahead with the implementation of findings of the NSMC report into Cross Border Mobility in healthcare and provision first published in 2002. Read full article
6 February, 2007
Following the statement by a leading consultant microbiologist that MRSA is 'endemic' in Irish hospitals, Sinn Féin Health spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD said that the Government's approach to the problem lacks urgency. Read full article
30 January, 2007
Sinn Féin's Dublin Mid-West candidate Joanne Spain said today that a British Minister was doing more to advance an all-Ireland suicide awareness campaign than Minister Harney. Read full article
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