FFA ‘fully behind’ hospitals campaign

FARMERS For Action rolled

out its support for the National Hospitals Cam-paign staged at Causeway Hospital on Saturday, January 21.

Commenting on the protest, FFA NI co-ordinator William Taylor said: “FFA’s Steering Committee is fully behind any union or campaigns currently trying to a) keep our hospitals open and fully functioning; and b) have front line staff properly paid, measuring up to any wealthy nation and at least keeping pace with inflation.”

He continued: “FFA’s Steering Committee, with representation from across Northern Ireland, are all coming back with the same message: rural communities are

very, very angry and will no longer stand for the stance taken by top civil servants in Department of Health, including the six (unnecessary) costly health trusts, in their attempts to shut down services.

“These include the maternity unit at Coleraine’s Causeway Hospital and indeed the shut down attempts in Enniskillen that are set to cost lives due to two hour-plus ambulance journeys to Craigavon or Altnagelvin hospitals – journeys that the Fermanagh farming community, or Fermanagh town communities, should never be asked to tolerate when their loved ones are in trouble.”

FFA is looking into what legal challenges are possible, such as contravening the Rural Needs Act, and claims that these top civil servants are using the same tactics for hospitals as rural schools, ie, they leak that the school or hospital may be considered for closure two years plus in advance, thus parents reconsider sending their children to those schools, or doctors and front line staff rule out going to that hospital or the division mentioned for closure.

Mr Taylor concluded: “FFA is asking everyone, town or country alike, to take every opportunity to support the campaign on site or any which way to make yourselves heard before it is too late for your community!”