Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

Central to the reconfiguration process that was signed up to by health professionals in the north east was the building of a new regional hospital, but this has not materialised. I hear much good medical advice to say there must be a certain through-put for procedures to be clinically safe, but I cannot find any medical professional who will say reducing services in existing hospitals whereby patients will not receive a service because of waiting lists or be seen promptly and will have to spend a long time on a trolley is sufficient. We are told we will create a new medical order whereby there will be an increase in medical procedure numbers leading to better outcomes, but the elephant in the room is that individuals are not given the option to avail of improved clinical procedures, rather they face longer waiting lists and longer waiting times on trolleys. The Minister mentioned there would be no significant reduction in services.

Does that mean there will be overnight or part closure of the emergency department until the necessary capacity exists? Those of us involved in the hospital campaign are strongly of the view that we will fight for the emergency department until such time as there is a new regional hospital. We look forward to working in partnership with the Minister in the future. We might not agree on everything but there is no doubt we hope to work in partnership with the Minister in the next year or so to achieve some of our shared objectives.

At a meeting of the hospital campaign last Wednesday many individuals there related their personal experience of arriving in the accident and emergency unit in Navan and their lives being saved or at the very least their health being repaired by the existence of the unit. The hundreds and thousands of personal stories must be remembered on these occasions. As a result of the personal experiences that were related, it was stated at the meeting that people would do their utmost, including mobilisation if necessary, but we hope that time will not come and that we can work in partnership with the Minister.

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