Government hell bent on closing hospitals in North East
Published: 28 January, 2009
The HSE has once again laid out it's plans for hospitals in the North East. The reconfiguration will establish Cavan and Drogheda as acute hospitals and Monaghan, Navan and Dundalk as local hospitals providing more ambulatory and day care services. The Emergency Department in the Louth will be reduced to 12 hours with the completion of the new Emergency Department at Our Lady of Lourdes and acute services will also be transferred to Drogheda.
Councillor Tomás Sharkey, Sinn Féin EU candidate for Ireland East and member of the Regional Helath Forum says
"Under the North East Transformation Programme the government is hell bent on closing hospitals in the North East. There is no logical reason for this. In fact the 2009 hospital budget for Louth/Meath has ring fenced €5million (3% of the budget) to move acute services i.e. A&E and Surgical Services out of Dundalk. This €5million would be better spent replacing the Surgical and Maternity Wards that Fianna Fáil closed over the years.
"This is a slap in the face for the people of Louth. A good hospital is being run-down for no reason. The extension in Out Lady of Lourdes will barely alleviate the current over-crowding - closing Dundalk and Navan will negate any extra space in Our Lady of Lourdes.
"Dermot Ahern said he had no better cabinet colleague than Mary Harney - he admires and supports the policy of closing our hospital. Seamus Kirk has refused to come to a County Council meeting to discuss the health crisis in Louth. I believe Ahern and Kirk have let the people down and are ashamed to have to account for their actions.
Continuing Councillor Sharkey said
"The Green Party in government is a disgrace. On 15th April 2007 they promised that the future of the Louth County Hospital would be a key demand before they considered coalition. They did no such thing. The Greens, and in particular John Gormley and Mark Dearey, have walked away from health issues. It is not beyond the Greens to close a hospital; but build a cycle path to the next hospital 25 miles away."
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