People Before Profit motion to July full meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council calls for the Stormont Executive to stop the stealth privatisation of ambulance service.
The £10 million spent on private ambulance companies last year is another example of how the Stormont Executive is putting profits first and facilitating the stealth destruction of the Health Service.
We are told there is no money to fund frontline services and pay workers properly, but Executive parties handed out almost £50 million of public money to private ambulance companies over the last five years. And, of course, this is only one element of the privatisation of the health service.
People Before Profit believe in a healthcare system that puts people first, not one that prioritises profiteering. Challenging the Stormont Executive's stealth privatisation of the health service is about putting patient care, communities, and workers first. We urge people to get behind the worker-led trade union campaign to save the health service.
Harkin's full motion to Wednesday July 23rd full Council meeting:
"Council fully supports the concept and practice of a publicly funded NHS/Health and Social Care Service providing free care from the point of delivery. Council notes the damage inflicted on all aspects of the NHS/HSC by Westminster and Stormont over many decades through privatisation, outsourcing and underfunding.
Council notes with alarm that more than £10m was spent on private ambulance companies in 2024 and almost £50m over a 5-year period.
Council will write to the Health Minister expressing our alarm at these figures and calling for all available public funds to be spent on expanding NIAS frontline services and internal recruitment, instead of being drained away into the bank accounts of private companies.
Council will write to the Health Minister calling on him to stop the stealth privatisation of the Health Service and to express our support for the trade union demand for the NI Ambulance Service to be properly funded for emergency and non-emergency ambulatory care.
Council notes the 'hospital flow' crisis resulting in increased handover delays at emergency departments and will write to the Health Minister expressing our support for the trade union demand of a 45-minute maximum handover time for NIAS crews.
Council will write to the Western Trust/NIAS for a full breakdown of its financial spend and reliance on private ambulance companies for Altnagelvin Hospital and Western Area over the last 5 years.
Council will invite representatives of Unison and Unite for a presentation on ambulance services and their demands."
