Now the HSE must listen to the people

It is now clear for all to see the depth of public feeling generated by the continued removal of services from Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan. Never in recent decades has a protest march in Navan attracted a crowd of between 10,000 and 11,000 so united with one purpose. Their cries to halt the cuts at their local hospital must now be taken on board by the HSE. While a crowd of perhaps a few thousand would have been considered a success by the organisers of the Save Navan Hospital campaign, even they were overwhelmed by the scale of the turnout and the support the march received from every corner of County Meath on Saturday. It will give the campaign huge encouragement to continue its battle to force the HSE to reverse the cuts and bed closures at the Navan facility. Above all, it demonstrated that the people of the county whose lives may depend on the hospital that they will not be silenced. They came from all parts of the county, from all walks of life, young and old - a true cross-section of county and community life - standing shoulder to shoulder, clearly articulating with one voice that they will not stand idly by and allow a hospital that has saved countless lives in the county with by far the biggest population in the north-east region to be stripped of its services and turned into a cottage hospital or nursing home before the long-promised new regional hospital is built. Among the marchers were miners from Tara Mines whose know only too well that their own lives may depend on rapid access to a hospital emergency department in the event of an accident. They have been among the most vociferous supporters of retaining Our Lady’s with its full suite of services but significant momentum has also been added to the campaign by local GPs, clergy, clubs and organisations, representing the diversity of Meath life which has come to depend on Our Lady’s and who are demanding that the cutbacks and the transfer of services to other hospitals in the region ends. In September the HSE removed acute and emergency surgery from the hospital with immediate effect. Prior to that, keyhole surgery was withdrawn. The health authorities have claimed that the hospital will not close and insists their decisions were based on concerns expressed by unnamed clinical experts concerning surgical risks and patient safety in Navan. These allegations were condemned at Saturday’s rally by Dr Ruairi Hanley who accused the HSE of engaging in a smear campaign to blacken the names of highly regarded surgeons in Our Lady’s. Dr Hanley, an Irish Medical Times columnist, certainly pulled no punches as he accused the authorities of failing to tackle the waste and inefficiencies endemic in the HSE and suggested that some of the 19,000 administrators working for it be shown the door if savings are required. Other speakers spoke of how emergency patients from all parts of the county were being forced to undertake a tour of the hospitals of the north-east before they received treatment. Now, local TD and Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey has said he wants to see the HSE appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Health as there remains a great deal of confusion out there on what precisely lies behind the decision to suddenly remove so many services from Our Lady’s. The medical professionals are saying one thing and the health authorities are saying something completely different. We need to hear the truth. The Committee may well be one way of getting answers - under Dail privilege - from the HSE, who have turned dodging questions on Our Lady’s Hospital into an art form. However, it is now very clear that the public in Meath is in no mood to be left in the dark any longer. People are angry about a lot of things in this country right now and they are not afraid to express that anger. The HSE must justify its actions on Our Lady’s Hospital in public and set out clearly the reasons behind its blitzkrieg on services in Navan because the belief is that financial considerations are at the back of some, if not all, of the moves to run down the facility.