Hospices and palliative care services throughout the Republic will benefit financially from Sunflower Days, which take place on June 13 and 14. On those dates volunteers throughout the State will be selling sunflower pins for €2 each.
The fundraising drive is all the more poignant this year because it was recently revealed, during a recent meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health, that millions of euros allocated by the Government to hospices and palliative care in 2006 and 2007 was not spent on those services. Instead much of the money was used by the Health Service Executive to balance its books and fund other services.
Well, this is one pot of money the HSE can’t get their hands on! Dig deep and buy a sunflower pin. As a matter of fact, if you can afford it, buy more than one, or buy one but throw in a couple extra euro.
In an ideal world, there would be no need for such charity because our health service would be adequately funded by taxes. Indeed, in an ideal world the money allocated by the Dáil, the Exchequer and the Minister for Health to hospice and palliative care would actually be spent by the HSE on the services for which it was intended.
So dig deep and send a message to the HSE that, whether or not it considers palliative and hospice care a priority, the citizens of this State do.
Oh, and another wee message to the HSE: cough up the money you were meant to spend on palliative and hospice care in 2006 and 2007. Front load it onto the budget for 2009, in addition to whatever additional funds are going to be allocated next year. People deserve to die as peacefully as possible, as painlessly as possible, and with as much dignity as possible.
I’m sure, like me, vast numbers of taxpayers want the HSE to live up to the Government’s promises and provide front-line staff in hospice and palliative care with all possible support. In the meantime I will be voting with my wallet on June 13 and 14.
About Ian McGuinness
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