Appeal to support hospital march

Dear sir - On 1st September 2010, the HSE withdrew all emergency surgery and elective surgery from Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan. The HSE put PR spin regarding clusters of patients with poor medical outcomes into the public eye so they can undermine the hospital and say it is unsafe for patients to be treated there. I think the HSE have gone too far this time. How dare they undermine our fantastic hospital in Navan. How dare they undermine the staff, doctors, and nurses that work tirelessly to provide Meath with a top class medical, surgical and orthopaedic hospital. If the HSE are allowed to get away with undermining our hospital, you will see medical emergency services, orthopaedic services and surgical services and A&E being removed from Navan for, as the HSE say, patient safety. The HSE is run now by accountants and they want to put services out of reach of the most vulnerable in our society; the old people, poor people and the ordinary person. I ask people who have had very successful experiences in Navan Hospital to write to me. There are thousands of people alive today in County Meath owing to Navan Hospital. I hope the people of Meath stand up for each other and demand we have a fully functional emergency hospital in Navan. If the HSE spin doctors want to put out into the public eye six patients with poor medical outcomes after surgery, I urge hundreds of people to write to me and we will put out into the public eye all the patients that are alive today because of our fantastic hospital in Navan. I will also be contactable on mobile phone number (086) 384 5807. On 30th October at 3pm there will be a Save Navan Hospital protest march, starting at the Exhibition Centre in Navan marching to our Lady’s Hospital Navan. It is time the people of Meath stand up and fight tooth and nail to retain emergency services at Navan Hospital. In 1976, they tried to close our County Hospital in Navan but people power won out and the thousands who marched that day saved our hospital. Our hospital in Navan needs the people of Meath now. Unless we get thousands onto the streets, our hospital will end up like a nursing home. Please support our protest. Yours, Wayne Forde, 64 Parnell Park, Navan.