Louth Hospital - SAVE OUR HOSPITAL

Supported By Jascom

Main Menu

Resources

The HSE have convinced nobody and now must listen to the public.

Written by Louthhospital.com Webmaster
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 09:16
Statement from Save Our Hospital Committee following meeting in Dundalk with HSE officials and Forum on the 9th February 2010. Stalemate between Government / HSE and the people of Dundalk. HSE have convinced nobody and now must listen to the voice of the public Following the meeting between the Forum consisting of Dundalk Town Councillors and the Save Our Hospital Services Committee, and HSE officials held this week in Dundalk the Save Our Hospital Services Committee are agreed that there is a clear stalemate between the leaders in the HSE, their government policy makers and the wishes and experiences of the public regarding services at Louth County Hospital. The reason why we describe this as a stalemate is because HSE leaders demonstrated a lack of understanding of the issues here in Louth. They have tried to give a deaf ear to the unanimous opposition to their plans to remove services from Dundalk to Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda. Nobody living in this area supports the plans to close A&E, Intensive Care and Acute Medical Services. Doctors Quigley and Ó Branagáin care nothing for the fears of the public. They arrived in Dundalk with a rigid agenda of talking in circles but answering no questions. They are obviously briefed to impose the cuts and disregard any opposition. The HSE officials including Stephen Mulvany do not know how many ambulances or paramedics we have in the region. They do not know how many will be needed if they close our services. They could not say what service would be in place. These advisors to Mary Harney could not explain the news that their plans will include only 18 beds remaining in Louth County Hospital, though their proposal originally was to be 35 beds. Louth County Hospital had 5,000 inpatients last year with more than 100 beds. These policy advisors admitted that the long promised Midwife Led Unit will not be coming to Louth County Hospital despite Fianna Fáil and Green Party promises of this service. They had no response to the news that Maternity Services were withdrawn “temporarily” by the old Health Board under the chairmanship of Fianna Fáil’s Declan Breathnach. They did not know how many people used A&E in Dundalk last week or last month though their plan is to close this services on an allegation that throughput is to low. They have admitted that wait time for non emergency patients at Lourdes A&E will be longer as a result of diverting patients from other hospitals. This is not an improvement in service. They admitted that 100 jobs will be lost in Louth County Hospital as a result of their cuts. It is now admitted that the policy is to transfer patients to private nursing homes which have a profit margin built into their costs as opposed to treating the elderly and ill in public hospitals. This proves to us all what Mary Harney’s real agenda has been. Her friends in the private healthcare sector are more important than the Irish public. The Save Our Hospital Services Committee rejects these plans. We have galvanised public opinion against the cuts in services. We believe that the HSE are implementing government policy. The government must now reverse the policy direction.” Additional comment from Cllr Tomás Sharkey, member of the Save Our Hospital Services Committee “On leaving today’s meeting, I had a conversation with Dr Colm Quigley of the HSE. We spoke about his position on caseload to maintain safe skills for health professionals. He has held the view that numbers in Louth County Hospital are insufficient to maintain skills. He claims that there are too many hospital in this area. “However, Colm Quigley admitted that there are private hospitals which do not have enough patients to maintain clinician’s skills. These hospitals are not under attack from Mary Harney. In fact they receive lucrative tax breaks. “Mary Harney has stated that she takes her advice from her clinical advisors and will not deviate from this. She deviates from it every day these private exclusive hospitals remain open. Additional comment from Cllr Alan Grehan, member of the Save Our Hospital Services Committee “During the 3 hour lecture we received from the HSE officials today. It was confirmed to the representatives present by Dr. Quigley, that the transformation agenda is a matter of government policy and that the HSE will implement same as a matter of urgency. This is contrary to what we have been told by our local and national government party representatives, who have claimed both publically and privately that this threatened transfer of service from the Louth County Hospital is being driven and implemented by the HSE and that they are powerless to stop it”. “The people of this town by their actions have rejected these proposals and the HSE this afternoon told us that as representatives of the people, we were being disingenuous in our representation of the facts”, “I find this particularly galling, given that we find that we have been lied to yet again by the government parties, as they try and spin their way out of responsibility for the threatened implementation of these proposals”.
Last Updated on Thursday, 11 February 2010 12:19

Argus Newspaper - Lourdes rated worst hospital in Ireland

Written by Louthhospital.com Webmaster
Wednesday, 20 January 2010 16:44
From the Argus Newspaper on 20th Jan 2010 OUR Lady of Lourdes Hospital has once again been rated the worst in the country. The Drogheda hospital is the only one in Ireland to receive an unsatisfactory rating in the latest HSE HealthStat report. Our Lady of Lourdes, which was also graded as red in previous reports, scored particularly poorly for the management of its resources. As of October 2009, the hospital was 3 million over its allocation for its year-to-date budget, spending just over 92 million. Also, the hospital was over its staff ceiling, and had missed the 3.5% national target for total staff absenteeism. READ MORE >
Last Updated on Wednesday, 20 January 2010 16:54

Save Our Hospital March Summary - 12/11/09

Written by Louthhospital.com Webmaster
Wednesday, 20 January 2010 12:16

Campaign now moves focus to decisions makers.

Written by Louthhospital.com Webmaster
Tuesday, 19 January 2010 15:44
The Save Our Hospital Services Committee met on Monday evening of this week and has been taken stock of the ongoing threats to Acute Services in Louth County Hospital. Speaking after the meeting, Anita McCann said; "There is no doubt that 2009 was the year that the people of this area stood together and gave a clear message that the government's plans for closing acute services are unacceptable. Hundreds packed Dundalk Town Hall and thousands marched through the town to Market Square. "We as a committee have known for some time that the campaign to save A&E, Acute Medical and Intensive Care services in our hospital would have to be focussed on the government. Transformation is a program of cuts in these services. It is endorsed by the Minister for Health, the government and is being rolled out by the HSE. "Our target must be the decision makers and we believe the decision makers are in the cabinet. Government politicians, Ministers, TDs and Councillors must get the policy reversed. The people of Dundalk and the surrounding areas have called on them to do this. "It is an outrage that the Programme for Government contained nothing for our hospital. Dermot Ahern from Fianna Fáil was a negotiator and local Green Party members say they had input to the negotiations. It is unbelievable that these 2 parties represented by local negotiators came up with nothing for our hospital. Jackie Healy Rae was promised a hospital in Kenmare and a cycle path is to be built from Oranmore to Spiddal in County Galway on foot of these negotiations. "There has been an agreement from HSE officials to meet with Town Councillors and our committee about the planned closures of services. This meeting must be in public and must be an opportunity for the HSE officials to hear that they are carrying out plans that have no support locally. There must be no more closed shop briefings. "We are now calling on all Town Councillors in Dundalk to sign a declaration that they will not be a member of or support a government party that closes 24 hour Accident &Emergency, Intensive Care or Acute Medical Services. The people of this area have done their bit. The public have given the mandate to everything necessary to save our services. It is now time for the government to realise they will have a political crisis here in Louth if our services are affected. "Our campaign website, www.louthhospital.com will carry a copy of the declaration with the signatures of Councillors as they are obtained."
Last Updated on Tuesday, 19 January 2010 15:49

Minister Ahern and Fianna Fáil party under preassure on Louth Hospital services issue.

Written by Louthhospital.com Webmaster
Wednesday, 16 December 2009 12:06
Cllr Tomás Sharkey, vice-chair of the Save The Louth Hospital Services Committee has commented on news that the Fianna Fáil organisation in Louth is fracturing over the hospital issue. "This morning we had an admission from a FF Councillor that Dr Colm Quigley and Dr Ó Brannagáin, 2 leading masterminds of the impending closure of services at Louth County Hospital came to Dundalk to brief an internal Fianna Fáil meeting on their plans. This is a desparate attempt from Fianna Fáil to stop the resignations from their party over this issue. "The people of Louth are disgusted that an Independent TD from Kerry and two quasi-Independent Fianna Fáilers in Sligo can gain hospital services for their areas while we are left to suffer. we are also disgusted that these 2 officials from the HSE have yet to respond to a request from Cllr Martin Bellew to attend a meeting of the Forum formed to oppose the cuts. Is it HSE policy to attend Fianna Fáil meetings only? "Dermot Ahern has seen that the people of this County reject his government's plans to close our services but is unwilling to stand with the people. He has chosen to hide behind officials from the HSE and Mary Harney, and is now trying to train his Fianna Fáil Councillors to be spokespersons for the cuts. He sees that his credibilty locally is ebbing away. "Dundalk is a small town. We all know of recent resignations from the Fianna Fáil Party over the hospital issue and fully expect that more people will reject the government's disgraceful plans for our hospital. Some months ago it became clear that theses cuts were being given political cover by Fianna Fáil and Green Party Councillors, TDs and Ministers. This betrayal of the wishes of the people of Louth must stop and government representatives must declare their intentions to walk over the hospital issue."