Healthcare workers ‘betrayed’ by Stormont’s ‘negligent’ decision on restrictions

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Updated 36 minutes ago

HEALTH WORKERS HAVE been betrayed by Stormont’s “negligent” decision not to impose a new lockdown, said a senior physician.

The president of the British Medical Association of Northern Ireland, Dr Tom Black, warned that hospitals are overcapacity.

Restrictions on circuit breakers have been extended for a week, with the hospitality partially reopening next Friday, following a political dispute that has exposed divisions between the parties in the executive.

Dr. Black said: “The national response to a situation like that would be to bring a new blockade, to make it more severe, but the politicians have decided to ease the restrictions over the next two weeks and open the society.

“That decision is incompetent and negligent and tells healthcare workers that ‘we are abandoning them.’

“If the health workers thought they have been betrayed by the Executive, I think that would be a reasonable position.”

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said the tactics being used were “shameful and embarrassing”, refuting the DUP’s use of the cross-community veto to block the extension of restrictions during two weeks.

“The degree of perversion of the original intention of that protection is exposed for all to see,” he said.

Sinn Féin frontman Mary Lou McDonald echoed those comments speaking later on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne.

“I think the DUP’s use of a cross-community vote and a veto, which is what Naomi was talking about, was embarrassing, it was embarrassing, it was depressing. The idea that the DUP can transform public health and our need to keep everyone safe and do the right thing for everyone in very difficult circumstances, which can turn that into an orange versus green issue, them versus us is really very, very shocking. ” , said.

A total of 78 deaths related to Covid-19 occurred in the week of October 31 to November 6, and the total number has reached 1,141, official statistics showed today.

On Thursday, at 11 am, the Executive reached an agreement to end the stalemate on the exit of the current coronavirus circuit breaker.

Beauty and hairdressing salons and premises without a license for alcoholic beverages such as cafes and coffee shops can reopen next Friday, with restricted hours at 8 pm

Driving lessons can be resumed by appointment only.

Restaurants, pubs and hotels can lift the shutters on November 27.

Pubs and bars will be able to sell closed sales from November 20.

The executive director of the Northern Ireland Hotel Federation (NIHF), Janice Gault, said that her sector had lost.

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Turnover is forecast to drop to less than a third of 2019 and the six week extended close will see a loss of sales in the region of £ 70 million.

He added: “From the hotel’s perspective, it’s been a bleak month with frustration turning to exasperation over the last week.

“The air of dejection at the beginning of the process has been replaced by one of disbelief and anguish.”

Sinn Fein voted against the successful proposal because it went against the guidance of Stormont’s scientific and medical advisers to extend the entire outage for two weeks.

He was outnumbered at the ministerial table as ministers faced mounting public criticism for the delay.

The DUP, the Ulster Unionists and the Alliance Party voted in favor of the innovative proposals.

– With a report by Rónán Duffy



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