The announced changes to the personal independence payments, and the announcement in the spring statement of further changes to benefits and a cut in public spending to adhere to the chancellor's self-imposed fiscal rules will drive families deeper into poverty and ill health. The people in the West Belfast area are going to suffer disproportionately because of the existing levels of poverty, multiple deprivations, health inequalities, housing shortages, unemployment, and the lack of life chances which are the highest in Western Europe.

Where there is poverty there is ill health and serious deprivation, which need more public services not fewer. Our National Health Service is being run into the ground because of the lack of funding and the policy of privatisation and fragmentation. This has meant decades of health inequalities for working class people, and further cuts to public services may mean the difference between life and death. Our political leaders are learning nothing from their past mistakes and are traveling the same old route in agreeing to the current proposals on health service reforms and the new Hospital Networks including a reliance on the private sector.

The private sector cannot solve the crisis in our health and social care services; they helped to create it. Private sector operators are not in the business of tackling major health inequalities as that would not be profitable. The private sector is in the business of making profit for its shareholders and directors.