Anti-privatisation protest at RVH

antrim | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Saturday February 03, 2007 16:43 by Ciarán Ó Brolcháin

People Before Profit organised a picket today outside the RVH on the Falls Road, to protest plans to introduce the Private Finance Initiative to the hospital. Around 40 people, includling members of staff at the Royal, took part in the picket.

There is currently a plan afoot to build the new Mother-and-Child ward at the hospital using PFI. This would be a travesty as you would only have to look at the car park in the RVH for an example of what privatisation will do. The car park was built using PFI and the company that owns the 20-year contract, NCPS, were able to recoup all of their costs within the first seven years. This company pays the RVH around £25,000-£30,000 a year for using the land, around 5% of the annual profits generated by the car park. Money that could go into the health serice, where it's much needed, instead goes into the coffers of a private company. And that's to say nothing of how workers would be treated under the scheme.

Catherine Harte, of the trade union UNISON, has stated "Basically, a four-hour job would have to be done in three hours. Our cleaners provide a vital service - they aren't tidying office desks. They disinfect beds, sterilise floors, clean incubators, and a reduction in the quality of their services would hit children and newborn babies directly. They need to be accountable to managers in the hospital." (Belfast Telegraph, 16 January 2007)

UNISON will be organising another picket outside the hospital on Wednesday 7th February.