Waiting lists for hospital treatment in Northern Ireland are falling abysmally behind those in England, the SDLP conference heard.
Carmel Hanna told a conference session on healthcare that as waiting lists increased, people were being forced to scrimp and save to pay for private treatment.
"There are too many stories of people waiting so long that they have died before they joined a list to see a consultant or that their relatively manageable illness has spiralled out of control," she said.
She said she wished that everyone in the health service should have to decide whether or not they wanted to work in the public or private sectors.
Ms Hanna said two women in the North were forced to threaten to go to court to seek access to the cancer drug Herceptin, which can make a major difference to the future of women with breast cancer.
"This is not the NHS we support and we will not accept it. Neither will we accept statements by our health minister that we can't expect to pay for such drugs if we refuse to pay water charges," she said.
Josephine Deehan said that in the Sperrin/Lakeland trust area, the waiting time to see a consultant orthopaedic surgeon was 52 weeks.
Meanwhile, in a debate on education, Dominic Bradley suggested this was an area for further cross-Border co-operation.
"We should arrange for the Irish language qualification to be taught in the North for a start, to help avoid any shortages of teachers across the island. We must also advance the exchange programme - children living only miles apart should not grow up worlds apart," he said.
Alasdair McDonnell said the forthcoming introduction of top-up fees by the British government for third-level education would contribute significantly to a brain drain out of Northern Ireland as students were forced to shop around for the cheapest course, even if they would prefer to study closer to home.
Mr McDonnell said this move, which had been introduced by direct rulers, would dismantle much of the good work carried out by the SDLP in the further and higher education sector under devolution.
