Campaigners despondent after meeting with HSE

The HSE has refused to guarantee that acute medical services have a medium or long-term future in Our Lady's Hospital, Navan, following a meeting with Navan Hospital campaigners last week. The Save Navan Hospital campaign members who attended the meeting last Wednesday with senior HSE management and the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, at Leinster House have expressed disappointment with the outcome. Navan Parish Administrator, Fr Declan Hurley, said it was clear over the course of the meeting that Minister Harney's advisers were unwilling to give a commitment that normal services would be resumed at Our Lady's Hospital as soon as possible. “Minister Harney herself was unwilling to instruct her advisers to give such a commitment. I found that deeply disappointing,†said Fr Hurley. Campaign chairperson, Cllr Peadar Tóibín, also expressed his disappointment and said barriers came up when the delegation asked about surgery returning to Navan, and no commitment was given regarding the future of acute medical services at the hospital. He said the campaign would hold a major rally outside the Dail in January to keep the pressure on the Government. The rally, which was to have been held today (Wednesday), had to be cancalled because of the recent weather conditions. Others who attended last week's meeting were local GPs, Dr Ruairi Hanley, Dr Niall Maguire, Noeleen O'Donoghue and Wayne Forde, representing staff, and Pat Mullanny, representing former patients of the hospital. All the elected Fianna Fáil TDs for Meath were in attendance, as were Deputy Damien English and Deputy Shane McEntee of Fine Gael. Cllr Tóibín said: “We went in with an optimistic frame of mind because we had heard information that the HSE was considering the return of services; however, we left in pessimistic form.†Cllr Tóibín said that they had first put it to the HSE that healthcare capacity has been ripped out of Meath and no alternative capacity has been created anywhere else to take up the overflow. Under the present Government plans, no regional hospital was going to be built and patient safety was being jeopardised, he added. “We delivered figures from the INMO and the Irish Medical Times that show patients waiting on trolleys, a lack of staff and a lack of accreditation at the Drogheda hospital. None of these facts were accepted by the HSE. “We asked simple questions with regards to what surgery services will return to Navan Hospital and when. We were told by one member of the HSE team that it is the policy of the HSE that Navan is a fit place for elective surgery.†He said that when they asked when surgery would resume in Navan, the barriers came up. “We were told that it depended on when certain studies were undertaken. No timescale was given. Then we would have to wait until certain reports could be released and notime scale was given. Then it depended on if and when contracts would be signed by certain staff - no timescale given. Then we were told it would depend on whether or not enough anaesthetists could be employed in January. Another member of the HSE team stated at this point that it could be hard to get enough for Drogheda, never mind Navan,†the Sinn Fein councillor said. Cllr Tóibín said it was clear that all the members of the HSE were not on the same page with regards their own views. “They seemed to differ over their approach. Suffice to say that every time we suggested a method of overcoming a barrier to return of surgery, another two or three barriers were put in our way,†he added. He said one of the HSE team stated that acute medical services may not have a medium-term or a long-term future in Navan. “All the HSE were willing to guarantee was that there would be acute medical services available in the Louth-Meath area. This is a very serious development and it will be fought tooth and nail by the campaign,†he claimed. “I understand that people may be depressed by this news. However, it must remembered that this Government has less than three months left.†He said the campaign's job now was to maintain services at the hospital until there was a change of Government and then hold the new Government to account on the return of surgery. He said the campaign would meet the HSE again in January in an ongoing effort to try and return services.