“The Coronavirus spotlight is being focused, quite rightly, on our vulnerable older community living in residential and nursing homes. Living together in larger numbers, they are always going to be at greater risk”, says Hugh Scullion , the Party’s representative in the South Derry area.

“The disastrous Health and Social Care Act of 2012 was designed to privatise health care, break the NHS into fragments, and to open up services and support to competitive tendering”, he said.

Impossible

“The outsourcing of public services to private companies is a model in disarray. Having privatised large parts of our health care service, the government, through austerity measures, have made even more impossible to deliver adequate levels of care.

When the private sector can no longer maintain standards and turn a profit it is always left to the NHS to pick up the pieces”, Hugh said

“This process has been in train for over 30 years and the current structure is deeply embedded.

In 1979, 64% of residential and nursing home beds were still provided by local authorities or the NHS; by 2012 it was 6%.

The trend, especially in the residential sector, is for small operators to be replaced by large provider chains, some, owning more than fifty care homes, which in turn house up to a hundred residents each. How many residents actually consider these large establishments as home”?

Smaller

“Although home-care services should be further developed and resourced, there are times when a person can no longer be safely cared for in their own home”, Hugh pointed out

“Surely, as part of our provision of care for older people, the NHS is capable of establishing smaller family sized care facilities that meet the needs of the residents and that they and their family can recognise as home”, he said.

The Coronavirus Pandemic has brought into sharp focus the disastrous consequences of privatisation of our elderly care service.

One of the legacies of this pandemic must be to rebuild care homes to meet the needs, comforts and safety of the residents and not the profits of large conglomerates”, Hugh concluded.

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/letters/workers-party-after-pandemic-we-must-rebuild-care-homes-elderly-and-not-profit-2561172

The pattern of the Covid 19 pandemic continues to evolve. So too is our response to it.

There can be no doubt that many of the measures which have been put in place are having a positive, and life saving effect. Keeping our distance from each other, washing our hands, staying at home and operating essential services and businesses only, has undoubtedly helped to reduce the levels of transmission and consequentially lives.

However, it is time to rethink the decision to close cemeteries. The risk of transmission means that placing limits on the number of close family members attending the burial or cremation must remain in force, but restrictions on access to cemeteries is an altogether different issue.

The grieving process and remembrance of former family members and friends is an extremly important part of how we all come to terms with bereavement. It is a central part of our culture and also a very important part of the psychological process of coming to terms with loss.

The original decision may well have been taken as part of a blanket response to the management of public spaces and the control of the virus, but it can, and should, be re-assessed.

People have responded well and responsibly, for the most part, to restrictions on social gatherings and self distancing. It works effectively at supermarkets, chemists, off licences and post offices . It can also be applied at cemeteries .

With simple, and tried, controls in place responsible relatives and friends can visit gravesides without increasing the the risk of transmitting or contracting C19. The immediate psychological pressure of not being able to visit a loved ones grave would be relieved and a very possible mental health crisis in the longer term could be avoided.

The Executive must address this now.

The expert medical opinion is that we have not yet reached the peak of the Coronavirus, but already some conservative economists are talking about the world after Covid 19, and they have a pretty clear idea of how it will look.

Advantage

There hasn’t been an economic crisis or a natural disaster that capitalism hasn’t sought to turn to its advantage. The millions of pounds of public money that were poured into banks after the economic collapse of 2008, the way in which the European Union imposed crippling economic  straight jackets on the Republic of Ireland and Greece, for example and the privatisation of public services they forced as a condition of bail out.

Further examples include the land grabs and demolition of public housing that took place in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It was then sold off to private investors as prime real estate. Already there are examples of venture capitalists snapping up businesses forced to sell up because of the Covid virus.

There is nothing sympathetic, collective, or social about capitalism. The relentless pursuit of profit is its sole motivator.

Preparing

Locally and globally, capitalism is already preparing the ground for the world after C19. In the coming weeks we can expect to be bombarded by economists and politicians: from the centrist social democratic parties to the conservative far right.

Each will be arguing that we’re all in this together and that ‘regrettably’ we will have to introduce water charges, increase taxes, cut back on public housing and infrastructure projects, review the National Minimum Wage, reassess workers’ rights, and start paying directly for our visits to the GP, A&E departments and for homecare services.

Capitalism has never wasted a crisis to tighten its grip on working people and wring an extra pound of profit out of the situation. The Coronavirus crisis will be no different.

It is more important than ever that there is a progressive and radical response to this crisis and to those who seek to profit from it.

Workers providing essential services which are keeping our society functioning at this critical time are also being put at serious risk through the lack of personal protection equipment and social distancing measures.

In supermarkets, shops, offices and warehouses workers are placing themselves on the frontline to serve their customers and provide the essentials for everyday life.

These workers also have lives and families. They are facing the same difficulties and uncertainties as everyone else.

Supermarket workers are exposed daily to hundreds of customers and to potential carriers of the virus with little or no protection. Their employers meanwhile are amassing huge profits.

Last Wednesday, workers across Greece, organised by PAME – the co-ordinating body of trade unions in Greece – held a National Day of Action in support of these workers.

The Workers Party sends its best wishes and solidarity to PAME and to our fellow workers in Greece and across the world.  

See the PAME statement in full below