Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cullinane for bringing forward this important motion. I extend my deepest sympathies to the family, friends and loved ones of Aoife Johnston.

In my contribution, I want to focus on capacity and call out what has been a dominant theme in healthcare planning in this jurisdiction and State for the past 30 years, namely, centralisation. We had the Hanly report at the start of the decade, and then the Teamwork report. Such reports always point towards centralisation. I remember at the time those reports were published, they felt like a foregone conclusion in that they pointed towards centres of excellence. Of course, the experience of communities was something very different. It was one of closure, centralisation and a lack of capacity and follow-through in terms of the delivery of supports, services and capacity. We never saw centres of excellence. I acknowledge that significant progress was made on the cancer programme, but that one-size-fits-all approach did not fit all. The mid-west region is the exemplar of that failed policy.

There were proposals to close emergency departments in Ennis, Mallow, St. John's, Dundalk, Nenagh, Roscommon, Navan and elsewhere. Practically all of those departments, with the exception of Navan, were closed. In many ways, they were closed by stealth via reduced funding for services. It was claimed that they were unsafe and publicly announced as being unsafe, and closed. In many cases, what replaced them was equally unsafe or worse. The truth is that the mid-west could be any region had that policy been implemented in the same way elsewhere.

I represent the county of Meath. The Minister is familiar with the case we have made for many a year regarding Navan hospital. It is still referenced in stated policy in the small hospital framework. We have heard from consultants in Navan and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. We want the future of Navan emergency department to be secured. I welcome the reprieve that it has had under the Minister's watch, but we need more. We need a similar investment plan for the emergency department and ICU in Navan hospital to ensure it has a sustainable future and can serve the growing population in County Meath and the wider area. As long as we have the stated policy in the small hospital framework that Navan hospital's emergency department is to follow the likes of Roscommon, Nenagh and Ennis, it does not have a sustainable future. I call on the Minister to ensure the policy is changed and the people of the north east have the same safe staffing levels as the people of the mid-west.

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